The Sunday Mail
AFTER finally taking the call she had initially dreaded, Pepukai banged the receiver and sucked her teeth noisily while trembling with anger.
She threw her hands about and shook her head in disgust.
“What did I do to deserve this at the end of every month? I have my own family and personal concerns I need to attend to before I can start throwing away money on issues that least concern me,” the dark and plump lass could be heard saying, as she pulled her tight skirt back into position after the call.
Within minutes, the phone rang, rang and rang in the same office with no one picking up.
Charlton, who also works with Pepukai, refused to pick it and whispered: “Tell whoever is looking for me that I have gone out on an assignment.”
In today’s world being broke seems to be better than getting a salary.
Called “kuchona”, “kubroka”, “kupera”, “zero-zero” or “veduwe veduwee”, being broke comes with a peace of mind for some people.
These days, getting paid is as if you have committed a crime.
Rent, bills and domestic provisions become due the moment one gets their pay-cheque.
Married people have to contend with expenses related to maintaining their families and an occasional hairdo for the woman of the house.
However, these cardinal expenses are sometimes overtaken by other competing interests.
In fact, many people do not take kindly to being paid visits on the days when they get paid.
If ever you want to be hated by a colleague’s wife, do the rounds with them when they get paid.
You run the risk of being blamed for all the things that go wrong in their home.
“Pay-days are the worst days of my life. These are days that remind me I am a poor man because all I get vanishes the moment I receive it,” said one barber called Jefta.
“The moment I get paid, I start receiving calls from friends and relatives seeking financial assistance. These people sadly think that their concerns should take precedence over mine, and this is where the problem begins.”
Chipochashe Zhou, a tailor along George Silundika Avenue in the capital, has her own reasons for hating pay-days.
“Shamwari, pay-days are the worst days of my life. The people who give us materials with which we saw garments on credit usually come demanding their money the moment they know that I would have been paid. At times the landlord immediately comes demanding his dues and this leaves me with barely anything to take home.
I am usually stressed on pay-days,” she said, her head resting on her shoulder.
Family functions like funerals, memorial services and weddings also seem to be conveniently set.
They usually take place around pay-days, leaving workers unsure how they will navigate through the month.
“We were truly born to suffer. In most instances, the moment you receive a phone call around month-end, you automatically know that all is not well. Circumstances seem to connive with sadness during this time of the month to lead me into trouble,” I heard a certain man saying while staggering home in a drunken stupor last weekend.
There are very few cases when you see people happy towards month-end.
Whenever a landlord summons you for a meeting, you automatically know it is a cocktail for disaster.
“Mukoma hanzi nababa varikuda kukuonai,” children are often sent to call you.
Month-ends are not good times for those with an eye for finer things in life, as these are the times during which office vendors bring winter jerseys and chickens for sale on credit, all calculated to present unsuspecting citizens with a tough pay-day.
Supermarkets are known to give customers a lot of bargains towards the end of the month, which increase the basket of competing interests for the unassuming worker.
Month-ends are truly a nightmare for many people.
Inotambika mughetto.
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