CHOMBA MUSIKA, Lusaka

AN ACCOUNTANT will spend half a decade in a correctional facility with hard labour regretting why he stole over K350,000 from his employer, Kings Pharmaceuticals. He used the money to settle his personal debt.
Malizani Zulu, 35, of Chunga Township in Lusaka, was charged with theft by servant, an offence committed between August 1 and November 31 last year. Zulu, while employed as a bookkeeper, stole K352,407 cash, property of Kings Pharmaceuticals. He appeared before Lusaka senior resident magistrate Felix Kaoma and admitted to the charge. “I got the money from the company’s tenant. I was supposed to deposit the money in the company account, but I used it to pay my debts somewhere,” Zulu told the court. Evidence shows that Zulu was employed as an accountant, and part of his duties was to collect revenue and paying clients who had transacted with the pharmaceutical firm. The court also heard that Zulu used to collect rentals from AMG, a company property situated in Makeni, where the tenant used to pay cash to Kings Pharmaceuticals through Zulu.
He diligently performed his duties until January last year, when the company noticed that rentals had not been paid by a tenant. When asked about the delayed settlement of rentals, Zulu blamed it on the renovations which were being done on the rented company buildings, but assured his employer that he would collect the money, which accumulated to K325,407.90. But after noticing that Zulu had failed to collect the rentals, Kings Pharmaceuticals management contacted AMG Company to CLICK TO READ MORE