By Judith Nyuke
Pandari Hotel Chairman Sunday Chifamba on Thursday appeared in court as a witness in a matter he alleges he lost US$90 000 in a botched property deal.
Chifamba dragged a couple Usedia Zhuwaneti, 50, and Edzayi Arufaneti, 55, who were his neighbours in Glen Lorne, Harare, to court accusing them of fraud.
The State alleges that sometime in 2014, the couple hatched a plan to defraud complainant and pursuant to their plan, they approached Chifamba and posed as shareholders of Anglovaal Investments Pvt Ltd and that they owned stand number 761 Glenlorne Township of 41 of Glenlorne held under Deed of Transfer 9391/98 through the company.
Accused reportedly produced a Power of Attorney, copies of Share certificate and Annual returns of Anglovaal Investments Pvt Limited. They offered it to Chifamba for sale.
On 31 March 2014, Chifamba reportedly acted on accused’s misrepresentation and bought stand number 761 Glenlorne for US$90000-00. The property had an equivalent value to 200 shares in Anglovaal Investments Pvt Ltd.
Complainant reportedly paid through his Personal Assistant, Matifadza Muzariri who made the last payment of the purchase price on 26 May 2015.
The reversal of ownership was done in 2015. In 2016, Eelco Alexis Walraven, the owner of the property who had sold it to Anglovaal Investments in 2011 but later claimed it back through an Order granted by High Court on 11 May 2015(HC 1355/11) for failure by Anglovaal Investments Pvt Ltd to pay the full purchase price, approached Chifamba and claimed ownership of the property.
On 27 June 2019 Eelco Alexis Walraven obtained an Order by Consent from the High Court under High Court case mumber 8132/16 to evict Chifamba from the property.
Complainant tried to engage accused but failed and resultantly reported the matter to the police.
As a result of accused’s actions, complainants suffered actual prejudice of US$90 000-00 and nothing has been recovered.
In response to the accusations, the couple, represented by their lawyer Shepherd Makonde, denied the allegations, stating they had not sold any property but had an agreement of sale for shares with Chifamba.
During the cross-examination, Chifamba acknowledged that in his affidavits filed with the High Court regarding his eviction from the Glen Lorne property, he did not mention that the house he was being evicted from had been purchased from the accused persons.
He also admitted that he provided varying accounts at the High Court and the Magistrates Court regarding who had sold the property in question to him.
Chifamba declined to comment on whether his lawyer had made errors by not including the names of the two accused individuals in his affidavits.
” You confirm that the mistake of your lawyer was to omit the names of the accused in your affidavits,” Makonde asked.
Chifamba responded saying, “I can’t answer that”
“Was it a mistake that you signed a document that does not include the names of the accused persons?”
“I can’t answer that,” Chifamba responded.
