Burning Old Bridges

During this festive season it is important to keep our families united.

The following story is an excerpt from Chapter Four of my recently published book entitled " Snares of a Deceptive Society" which will soon be on sale.

"Durkent was trained as technician electrician at one of colleges on the Copperbelt. He was admitted there after successful completion of his grade 12 education in Lusaka. He joined one of the electrical companies that manufactured electrical panels in Lusaka .

Durkent only worked for the company for four years. He shifted from Lusaka where his parents were living and started his own electrical panel manufacturing company.

He was assisted to start the business on the Copperbelt by a businessman of Asian origin who was a long time family friend to his parents. Durkent's father was a senior civil servant in the ministry of science and technology.

Durkent managed to get some good business with the mining companies because of the good quality of electrical panels he made from a rented workshop he was operating from.

Within three years, Durkent Electrical Company Ltd. (DEC Ltd.) grew from a small backyard company to one of the biggest suppliers of electrical spares to the mining companies.

A new workshop was built and manufacturing equipment was imported from Australia. He went into partnership with an overseas electrical company who brought in experts to train local staff on how to use the sophisticated manufacturing equipment.

Durkent became one of the richest men in Zambia.

He got married to Meeky who was his childhood lover from his school days. They grew up together in the rural part of the country.

Meeky was of humble educational background. She was a beautiful lady with a typical black African skin. She had an attractive wide smile which was augumented by her very white teeth with very dark gums. She developed a dimple whenever she smiled.

Durkent got married to Meeky when he was working as an electrician of an electrical company.

By the time Durkent Electrical Company was celebrating its tenth year in business, the couple had three children, two boys and a girl. The girl was the youngest of the three children.

Due to the affluent life Durkent now led, he was exposed to so many women he met during his business transactions.

There was a young lady who was working in one of the financial institutions called Mercy.

Mercy was a spinster who was very light in complexion. She had a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management . Durkent was attracted to the young woman, who was some ten years younger than him. The two soon fell in love and decided to get married.

Mercy was aware of Meeky whom she and her boyfriend referred to as the "native" from the village.

Durkent was convinced that in order for his business to grow bigger, he needed to marry an educated woman. Mercy, with her Bachelors Degree in Business Administration,was the right candidate for that.

Meeky was a very cheerful lady with strong Christian faith. Her father had been a Pastor of a pentecostal church until his death a few years after his daughter got married to Durkent.

Durkent on the other hand,
was not coming from a family with a Christian background.

He was introduced to Christianity by Meeky, during their courtship, but he really never became a regular church goer. He took Christianity as one of the social functions and not a way of life.

Once he fell in love with Mercy, he started to sleep out. At first he pretended that he was kept busy by business transactions which could not allow him to come home.

When Meeky started to doubt and question his excuses of sleeping out, Durkent became abusive towards her. A couple that had lived in peace for over ten years started to have brawls which sometimes attracted the attention of neighbours.

Meeky tried to save her marriage by involving her in-laws and church leadership without success .

Durkent's father was opposed to the marriage right from the beginning. He did not want his son to marry a girl who was not very educated and brought up in rural areas.

Finally Meeky was forced into leaving her husband and went back to the village where she was brought up.

After divorcing Meeky, Durkent was free to marry his "graduate sweetheart" , as he was fond of calling Mercy.

Their wedding reception was held at one of the classy five star hotels in Lusaka. The pastor who married them was hired to do so at a small church without a public ceremony.

After the wedding the couple went for their honeymoon in Thailand for two weeks.

When Meeky was divorced she was given a $15,000 compensation by a local court. Durkent was also ordered to look after his three children's welfare until they finished college.


In the meantime, the global recession started to affect the operations of most companies in the country. Business from the mining companies started to dry up and DEC Ltd. started to experience liquidity problems.

For the first time since he started his business, Durkent found himself with a $100,000 debt which was giving him sleepless nights.

Mercy assured her husband that all will be well as she could arrange to get a loan from her employers.

Durkent agreed to this suggestion and got a soft loan of $150,000. This money was given on condition that the title deeds of his mansion and workshop were surrendered to the financial institution where Mercy was working.

The company started to show signs of recovery after injection of the $150,000. However ,after a year the balance sheet of the company was getting deeper and deeper into the red. Foreign suppliers who used to supply the company started to withdraw their credit facilities.

The financial institution finally got possession of the assets of the company and Durkent was left a destitute.

Mercy kept him at her parent's home as he was trying to start a new business with one of his long time business associates.

The new business did not work out and Durkent was eventually forced to get a job as a Technical partner in one company.

Mercy told him to leave her parent's home and started divorce proceedings against Durkent.

The new employers accomodated Durkent in one of the lodges after he was rejected by Mercy.

The company managed to secure a very big order from one of the newly opened mines. Durkent was given $40,000 to purchase spares required for this order.

He was to travel outside the country to get the spares.

He was bought a ticket and he traveled to the airport with the company car.

The car was left at the fee paying parking lot so that on arrival from overseas he would pick it and drive back to the lodge.

Two weeks passed without his employers hearing anything from him.All efforts to trace him failed.

A check at the airport, where the car was left, revealed that he did not board any plane from there during the last six months.

The lodge later revealed that he had actually checked out of his room the day he was scheduled to fly out of the country.

One taxi driver revealed that he was hired by Durkent to drive him to the border of a neighboring country on the date he was to fly out.

The company tried to freeze his account where the $40,000 was deposited but to their shock they discovered that the amount was transferred to another account and only $1,500 was left as balance. The other account was no longer in use.

Durkent is now a fugitive on the run !"

A bird in your hand is better than two in the bush. Do not burn old bridges just because you have found new ones.

The grass on the other side of the fence might look greener at a distance, however , on arrival you will be shocked to find that it was afterall artificial grass not suitable for grazing !

Remember that not all that glitters is Gold.

Have a happy and prayerful Christmas and remain blessed in the New Year!