Part 4.
In the first three parts preceding this, I mentioned our maid of 11 years. She was recommended to us by our neighbor's maid. This was back in January 2013, just a month after my wife and I got married. Initially, she came in three days a week, then five days. Within six months, she had transitioned to a live-in maid. The rest, as they say, is history.
So, when we needed a nanny for our daughter, we realized we had little experience in finding one. We had only ever had one maid, for 11 years, and she came to us with a strong recommendation. Given this lack of experience, the idea of using a maid center greatly appealed to us.
Clemolis Maid Hub:
As residents of Meanwood Kwamwena Valley, my wife and I are active members of various community WhatsApp groups, including a neighborhood watch group, a road maintenance group, and the Kwamwena Makwebo group. It was in the latter group that we first encountered Clemolis Maid Center, after they posted an advertisement for their services.
Within two weeks, my wife had contacted the center and arranged to interview three candidates at their facility in Vorna Valley in early April 2024. One Sunday afternoon, she returned home with a young woman in her 20s named Rebecca. Within two hours, it was evident to everyone that Rebecca wouldn't last. Our daughter didn’t even warm up to her.
By 9 PM, while I was watching a football match and my wife was busy preparing for Monday morning, our daughter had dozed off. My wife came to take her from my arms and put her to bed. When she reached our daughter’s room, she found the new nanny, Rebecca, dead asleep. Rebecca had locked herself in the room and was snoring away on her very first day on the job.
I heard my wife knocking on the door and calling out in frustration, “Rebecca! Rebecca! Rebecca!”
I walked over to the bedroom door and joined my wife in knocking. The room was small, barely 4 × 5 square meters, but we knocked for nearly 10 minutes before Rebecca finally woke up and opened the door. This was her first day on the job, and already, her behavior was alarming. She had locked herself in, slept deeply, and showed no concern for how the child would fall asleep or who would put them to bed.
For the next three nights, my wife stayed in that room, and each morning, she left for work convinced that Rebecca wouldn’t last. By Wednesday evening, her prediction came true. My wife asked Rebecca to pack up and drove her back to the maid center. It was then we began to suspect that the center might be shortchanging us. Was Rebecca really a trained nanny, as we had been led to believe?
We didn't find another nanny until the weekend, when we finally settled on the now (in)famous Bridget Mwanza, also known as Mary Nonde, the runaway nanny. During this time, my wife shared her experiences with close friends, and the feedback about maid centers was overwhelmingly negative. Everyone had negative experiences.
However, when Bridget arrived, she briefly managed to change our minds. Our daughter immediately warmed up to her. They played together, took long walks, and our daughter was suddenly introduced to the joys of the outdoors. She would cry and throw tantrums, demanding that Bridget take her outside.
Then, things began to disappear from the house. In retrospect, the first red flag was when my wife started missing money from her purse. One morning, while preparing for church, she asked me if I had taken 200 kwacha from her purse. She had set aside a specific amount to give at church but realized it was 200 kwacha short.
The realization hit us like a cold wave. Could it be Bridget? Doubts began to creep in, turning our initial trust into suspicion. The unsettling feeling that something was terribly wrong grew stronger, setting the stage for the dramatic unraveling that lay ahead.
Fast forward a month or two later, everything becomes clear that Bridget Mwanza had been stealing. My wife and I took steps to inform the maid center about this development but the maid center showed no interest at all. The next morning they were putting up Bridget Mwanza to go to a new client.
At the maid center, when my wife and I went looking for the run away Bridget, we sat at a hastily assembled reception. On the eastern side of the room were bags, a heap of back packs belongings for the maids in that house. On the western side was a door to what seemed to have been a kitchen. The door was briefly opened as one of the maids came out to bring Bridget Mwanza's bag. Inside the room were a number of maids seated on the floor having a meal and they all seemed like a bunch of cult members awaiting for their saviour.
On the gate of the center were words written, "Clemolis maid Hub"
"Trained maids, nannies, gardeners, care givers etc."
On the other side on the gate it was written "baby day care"
Inside the premises, nothing looked like a place where training happens. Not less for maids and care givers. For starters it looked unkempt. It looked like one of those untidy one bedroom apartments depicted in movies where low budget prostitutes reside.
Possible Collusion:
The actions of the maid center since the whole Bridget Mwanza debacle has been very suspicious. But when the proprietor of the center called me on Sunday morning asking me to pull down my posts about the fallacy of maid centers and the criminality thereof:.
The proprietor of Clemolis maid Hub got my number from Kwamwena Makwebo WhatsApp group where I had posted parts 1 and 2 to alert others about the shoddy services of the center. This call was made to ask me to pull down the posts, especially one where I used an image of their premises. She claimed the premise is owned by someone else who has leased it out to her and that landlord is not happy with the post and this might have "repercussions" on me.
This phone call was laced with threats. Instead of a call to apologize and give me assurance that in the future she would do better. Instead she just gave excuses as to why she couldn't act about Bridget why she didn't show up at the police station when the police asked her to do so, and of course the threats therein.
Clearly this lady (I didn't ask her name) and her business are jokers. You put people that paid for a service, in harm's way and all you can do is issue implicit threats. She has no ounce of responsibility.
As a business owner one needs to learn to take responsibility. You lose nothing by taking responsibility and addressing the wrongs. In fact you gain more doing that.
Otherwise we shall be led to believe that the business owner is colluding with her thieving maids. When they get caught, they just move such a one to the next client.
The lack of accountability and transparency at Clemolis Maid Hub is deeply troubling. The proprietor’s dismissive attitude and refusal to address the serious allegations against their staff not only undermines the trust of their clients but also raises significant ethical concerns. A business that deals with the safety and well-being of families must adhere to the highest standards of integrity and responsibility. Instead, Clemolis Maid Hub’s actions suggest a blatant disregard for these principles, prioritizing a quick buck over the safety and satisfaction of their clients.
Moreover, the absence of proper training and the unkempt state of the premises further highlight the need for stringent regulations and oversight in this industry. It is imperative that maid centers are held to rigorous standards to ensure they provide competent and trustworthy services. The authorities must step in to enforce these standards and protect consumers from such negligent practices. Without proper regulation, unscrupulous businesses like Clemolis Maid Hub will continue to operate unchecked, putting more families at risk.
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