Source: Land barons jailed for fraud | The Herald
Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Three land barons were jailed for 12 months on fraud charges each this week by a Harare magistrate for illegally selling State land reserved for a new primary school in Budiriro.
This comes as the Government steps up its fight against corruption in the country.
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission arrested States Simusonza, Ranson Chingwara and Tidings Keta all from Budiriro for selling stands they illegally carved out of the State land at prices ranging between US$5 000 and U$7 500.
The trio, who were members of Tabudirira Housing Cooperative, ran out of luck when their victims were served with eviction notices for building houses on land reserved for a primary school.
This led to the arrest of the three by ZACC investigators who took them to court where they went through a full trial resulting in their conviction and the 12-month jail terms.
In an interview, ZACC spokesperson Commissioner John Makumre said the arrests and subsequent convictions showed land barons that the full wrath of the law would be applied to curb their dishonesty.
“We are investigating several cases brought to the attention of ZACC. I can assure you that these land barons will soon be nabbed and locked up for a very long time,”
The three were charged of fraud.
In the first count, it is alleged that in 2014, Honest Vanhuvawone was looking for a residential stand to buy in Harare and met Keta, who told him that he was a committee member for Tabudirira Housing Cooperative which was selling residential stands at US$5 000 within greater Harare.
Mr Vanhuvawone was interested and raised US$5 000 cash to buy the stand and wanted to see the stand before handing over his money. Simusonza took him to Budiriro and showed off an open unidentified space as being the stand for sale.
On 3 November 2014 at Machipisa Shopping centre in Highfields Harare, Mr Vanhuvawone met Keta and Simusonza and their accomplice David Chakandinakira, who is still at large, and paid the US$5 000 before an affidavit confirming payment was drafted and signed.
“As a result of the transaction, the complainant was fraudulently allocated stand number 27033 from the State land reserved for a primary school which the accused had subdivided into small residential stands. The matter came to light after he was served with an eviction order in July 2015. As a result of the fraud and lies Mr Vanhuvawone suffered an actual prejudice of US$5 000,” said Comm Makamure.
On another charge, Emilia Nyapokoto from Budiriro met someone called Pearson, an agent of Property Arena, an estate agent who took her to the accused where she paid US$7 500 for 380 square-metre stand. She too was “allocated” and “sold” one of the small stands hacked out of the school site.
She too build her house only to discover in July 2015 that she had been illegally allocated a residential stand from the land reserved for a primary school after she was served with the eviction order by the City of Harare.
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