THERE was drama in the city centre on Wednesday this week when a local vendor humiliated and detained her client over a long standing $5 debt.
Surrounded by an angry mob of fellow vendors, the vendor who was only identified as Mai Shami held the bad debtor, Moses Marange by the collar threatening that she would only leave him after he handed her the $5 he owed her.
Marange, who evidently had no money at that moment tried to reason with the woman quietly to avoid worsening the anger of the mob who were baying for his blood, but to no avail.
All he could be seen doing was to try and call on his mobile phone for help from his friends and family. “He would come and take fruits on credit from my table on different occasions. The arrears rose to $5 and these are arrears from three years ago. I have been trying to locate him but he has been dodging me all this while.
“I have nothing to feed my children on except what I get from vending but this man does not respect that, he wants my children to die of hunger since he does not want to pay me,” shouted Mai Shami. A passer-by came to the Marange’s rescue and handed him a $10 note which Mai Shami’s friend grabbed and shouted that they were not going to give him any change as the debt was long overdue.
Surprisingly, after being let go, Marange who furiously pointed his finger at Mai Shami and asked for his watch which he claimed he had used to pay for the $5 debt some time back. “I want my watch which I gave to you as payment for the fruits. Give me my watch now,” said Marange. But Mai Shami denied ever collecting a watch from him.
Asked by one person from the crowd on why he had failed to pay the $5 debt in the past three years, Marange said that he had failed to locate the vendor whenever he wanted to clear the debt.