“Look Mlungisi we need to talk,” Sfiso called to him after class that next day.
“There is nothing to talk about with you,”
“Please Mlu, we have been close friends, let us not let this witch separate us…”
“Hey! You don’t call my girlfriend a witch. And how can you call us friends while you betrayed me and told her I’m suffering from masturbation!”
“Haibo I didn’t,”
“Don’t lie! So how does she know about it?”
“I don’t know! Maybe she overheard our conversation or something,”
“Mxm! You are disgusting! Mlungisi pouted and walked out.
*****
“Oh hey, Mr. Mdletshe,”
“How are you my son?”
“I’m fine and yourself?”
“I’m fine as well. Chomie told me your story. About how interested you are in this tender, that you are willing to sacrifice your grandmother’s treatment money as well as your trip’s money. She also told me that you quit school today, is that so?”
“Yes sir,”
“Well that’s great, now what I want you to do is to think of the poorest area in Kwazulu-Natal and go, and convince them to contribute twenty-thousand towards the tender. Tell them about the benefits of this tender as well as how much it has to offer,” Mr. Mdletshe said.
A few days later, Mlungisi travelled to KZN.
“San’bonani baba ekhaya, greetings,”
“Ubani lowo, who is that?” answered the man’s voice in the house.
“Ayi imina uMlungisi baba, it’s me Mlungisi”
“Hawu suka madoda ezinkulu. Indoda ethi mayi namba ishiye umaka ngemuva, kukhale izintombi, omama bakikize, izintsizwa zishaye amakhwela. Ey madoda kwathi mangighiye ngixume ngiqabule amafu! The old man praised in excitement.
“Awu baba namanje usangenza kanjalo, Father, even by now you still do that to me,” Mlungisi blushed.
“Yes, my child you will always be special and important to me, you are like my own son.”
“Oh I’m very pleased to hear those words great one, Chief Madondo. I’m here to bring about a serious matter, which needs to be meditated upon carefully”
“Awu! That sounds very solemn, what is it about?”
“There is a tender that I’m working on that will bring change, development and high job creation in this chiefdom. The only thing I need you, together with your people, to do, is to contribute with twenty-thousand rand,”
“You mean there will be electricity in this place?”
“Yes, Father. And taps as well as proper houses!”
“Ey that’s great news. I wrote a letter to the government concerning our state of being poor, undeveloped and unemployed, but they never replied. Awu, I know my people will be happy. Twenty-thousand is a small amount of money. If this tender is going to bring prosperity in this place, therefore we will make it twenty-five. You know us, we as black people we always complain about the fact that we don’t have money, although we have a little something in our pocket. So I’ll tell my people to contribute every cent, every cow they have. Yes! I know at first they will harden their hearts but indeed they will contribute. By next week Monday, you’ll have the money!” Chief Madondo said.
“Okay then, in that case, by the first of December the workers will start building roads, houses, buildings and so on,” Mlungisi said than went away.
*****
“Eish, today is the fourth of December and Mlungisi promised the Chief that by the first, the workers will start building the roads, houses and buildings! Now when is our visa problem going to be fixed? We need to leave Kwazulu-Natal before they start noticing that there’s something wrong. Mlungisi’s twenty-thousand plus the Chiefdom’s twenty-five, we’ll have enough money!
“Yes baby girl… then we will buy a house in Midrand!” Mr Mdletshe said, picking Chomie up and kissing her full on the lips.
*****
The next day Chomie called Mlungisi while she was at the airport. She told him to meet her in some hotel in Durban, that they were planning to do a celebration party there. Mlungisi was so excited that he packed immediately. While he was locking up his door, he noticed a police van pulling up at his gate.
Two police officers got out and walked to him.
“Mlungisi Nxumalo?” one officer called to him.
“Yes, how can I help you officer?” Mlungisi asked putting the suitcase down.
“You are arrested for swindling the chiefdom people, took away all that they have and left them with completely nothing,”
“You must be mistaken. I’m doing a tender for them…”
“You are to remain silent until you get a lawyer,” the officer said, cuffing his hands behind his back.
“I’m not the one responsible about this. I didn’t know anything about this!” Mlungisi cried. “I need to call Mr. Mdletshe and he will tell you I’m innocent.”
At the police station he was given a chance to make one phone call. He called Chomie, her phone was off. He called Mr Mdletshe, his phone was off. Then he thought of Sfiso and called him.
“Sfiso bra, you have to help me. Please come to the police station. I’m arrested for fraud. I don’t know what to do. Please come help me bra. I need you.” Mlungisi cried, leaving a voicemail for Sfiso.
When the police interrogated him, they also told him the truth. Natasha, who introduced herself by her fake name, Chomie, had disappeared along with her boyfriend, Mandla, who introduced himself as Chomie’s father. They were scam artists and the police are still trying to catch them.
When Sfiso finally went to visit Mlungisi in jail, while he waited for his bail hearing, he had no sympathy for his former friend.
“Mlu, you are completely stupid. You took all your grandmother’s treatment money, which I had been depositing in your bank account, and took the money I used to pay for your trip, and worse of all, you rob my father’s chiefdom and left them with nothing at all. For that I will never forgive you – not ever again. I know you didn’t know about all of this, and I know it is Chomie who tricked you, but there’s nothing I can do to help you. Hope you learnt your lesson, that that’s what happens when you choose Chomie over a friend.”
[The End]
*****
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