Phathisiwe Ncube, the ZANU-PF candidate who lost the Lupane East parliamentary seat in the 2023 elections, has failed to pay a restaurant bill left by her campaign team with the restaurant owner struggling to recover the money.
Ncube owes Take Me Out restaurant US$93.
Speaking to CITE, the restaurant owner, Archiford Sibanda said part of Ncube’s campaign team ate at his establishment for two weeks on the basis that they would settle their bill later.
After her defeat in the August polls, Ncube became elusive as Sibanda frantically tried to recover his money.
“At first when I spoke to her she was cooperating, then all of a sudden, her attitude changed, the next thing she was no longer picking up my calls and responding to WhatsApp messages, she ignored me.”
Sibanda said Ncube’s manager is also playing hard to get.
“Her manager who is based here has been giving us a hard time, we even went to his house, and he would hide, he would do the same at his workplace or he just told his workmates to say he is not around,” he said.
He said he has also tried to engage ZANU-PF members who also promised to speak to her.
“When I told her I will end up going to the media she was like which paper, it doesn’t work, I told her that she will be embarrassed together with her team, she then said she will see us she is not around, only to discover that she was around, so it’s clear that she is taking us for fools,” Sibanda fumed.
Contacted for a comment Ncube claimed that she paid the debt.
“I think that issue was resolved. I will talk to Arch today and get to the bottom of the issue, but I think that issue was resolved, so I don’t know why he has brought it to you, we paid off that account,” she said.
Ncube promised to forward proof of payment which she had not done by the time the article was published.
