A FORMER Bulawayo-based borehole drilling company now known as Delcor Drilling Botswana Company, which allegedly duped villagers in Tsholotsho, has fled to Botswana after aggrieved clients filed a lawsuit against it.
The company has also reportedly duped its Botswana clients, prompting the Botswana consumer rights watchdog-Competition and Consumer Authority (CCA) to issue a cautionary statement.
In a statement, CCA cautioned residents against engaging the services of two borehole drilling companies namely Delcor Drilling Botswana Private Limited and The Major Professionals Private Limited.
“In the recent past, the authority has received a total of 10 consumer complaints against Delcor Drilling Botswana and five against The Major Professionals. It appears that although The Major Professionals is based in Palapye and Francistown and Delcor Drilling Botswana is based in Maun, the two companies indicate that their services can be extended to other distant parts of the country,” CCA said.
“Most complaints received against these two drilling companies have to do with their failure to provide drilling services with consumers having been made to pay advance payments or deposits. Over and above not showing up to provide the required services, the same consumers received incomplete borehole drilling services.”
According to CCA, the companies blamed their inefficiency on faulty machinery.
“Even after giving them more time to fix their machinery the situation did not change, as the companies continue to collect funds from consumers who are unaware of the unavailability of working machinery,” said CCA.
“To date Delcor Drilling Botswana has collected at least P345 000 from consumers either as a deposit or full payment, but no service has been rendered. On the other hand, this has left the authority with no option but to issue a cautionary statement.”
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A lawyer, Thembalami Khumalo, from Mlweli Ndlovu and Associates Legal practitioners who represented at the High Court one of the duped Tsholotsho villagers, Fake Philemon Nyathi, said after Delicor company failed to honour its obligations despite him having paid them in full, they kept on tossing his client around.
He said their client informed them that a lot of villagers in Tsholotsho were duped.
“The company closed its Tsholotsho office. We filed summons and they were served, but did not do anything. Their property was attached. They took their properties, even those which were under attachment by the sheriff. Then the sheriff only managed to sell a few and realised US$2 000 to our client,” Khumalo said.
The two companies could not be reached for comment yesterday.
