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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Reporter

A WOMAN from Bulawayo’s Njube suburb ran amok and stripped her three-roomed house of all doors, cut off water supplies, uprooted the toilet chamber and went away with a Zesa prepaid metre-reader in a fit of rage following a misunderstanding with her tenant.

Trouble started when the tenant, Ms Tragedy Muchairi, reportedly refused to follow her landlady’s orders to remove a fellow tenant from the house.  Ms Muchairi, who moved into the house with her children in August last year, was in a state of shock while narrating the ordeal to the news crew.

“When I moved in here last year, she actually told me that there was another tenant that she no longer wanted to continue staying in the house but had difficulties removing him,” she said. 

“She said once I move in, I should tell the tenant that I have bought the house and wanted to use all three rooms. I, however, didn’t do that but just continued staying with my co-tenant and after we got used to each other, I realised that this lady (landlady) was using me. 

“I was also a tenant and so why should I harass another tenant? That is when we started having a misunderstanding,” said Ms Muchairi. 

According to Ms Muchairi, the landlady, Ms Francisca Tsoka, took the prepaid meter last year in November and since then they have not had electricity supplies at the house as they cannot buy tokens.

“In December she came back and removed the interior doors before finishing off the job with the outside door on January 18, four days after she cut off the water pipe and uprooted the toilet chamber,” said Ms Muchairi.

She said they were now living at the benevolence of the neighbours who allowed them to access the toilet as well as get water from their taps.

Contacted for comment Ms Tsoka, who stays in Cowdray Park suburb, did not deny any of the allegations leveled against her by her tenant but instead said she was actually renovating her house and accused her tenant of stealing two bags of cement and refusing to vacate the house.

“They moved in when I had already started renovating that house. That woman is a problem, she doesn’t want to move out,” she said. 

“She also stole two bags of cement, which forced me to stock my building materials somewhere else,” said Ms Tsoka.

Asked about the two bags of cement, Ms Muchairi claimed the bags were sold to a builder with the full knowledge of the landlady.

“The cement was actually no longer in a good state. I think the water had been poured onto it so I phoned her and told her about it and the builder who bought it acknowledged to her,” said Ms Muchairi.