Police in Kasungu have arrested a 30-year-old Farmers World branch manager for packing sand in fertilizer bags and presenting it as fertilizer.
Deputy Public Relations Officer Harry Namwaza identified the suspect as Robert Somanje who is Branch Manager for Chamama Farmers World.
According to Namwaza, in March Farmers World management discovered that there was a shortage of 53 bags of fertilizer which the suspect failed to account for.
After discovering the shortage, management decided to take an audit stock which revealed that there were 315 bags of sand packed in fertilizer bags which the suspect wanted to present as bags of fertilizer in order to cover up the stolen bags.
Out of 315 bags, 215 were packed as Urea bags while 100 were packed as NPK bags.
The audit also confirmed that the suspect stole 53 bags of fertilizer.
Meanwhile, Somanje has been charged with fraud and theft by servant and will appear before court soon.
Somanje hails from Levi village in the area of Traditional Authority Mzukuola in Mzimba district.
In another matter, Police in Limbe are keeping in custody six Carlsberg employees and two bottle stores owners for stealing Carlsberg beer worth K13 million .
Deputy public relations officer for Limbe Pedzesai Zembeneko said the employees stole 991 crates of Carlsberg Chill worth K13 million and gave them to the two bar owners.
The Carlsberg employees have since been charged with theft by servant while the bottle store owners have been charged with receiving property suspected to have been stolen.
The name ‘Somanje’ suggests that the man is a Yao and not from Mzimba. And for the man to pack 315 bags with sand clearly shows that it was a planned theft because it is a tedious job! Please, lock him up for a long time because Malawi does not need such people – the get-rich-quickly type!