HOME Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi has been accused of storming the Beitbridge Police Station and threatening to kill an employee of a South African investor who had been tasked with conducting an asset assessment of liquidated fuel company Red Queen Trading (Pvt) Ltd. RICHARD MUPONDE SENIOR COURT REPORTER
The fuel company was sold to the investor for $2,3 million.
Mohadi has been trying to grab the property from Beitbridge businessman Reginald McGillivray Dawson, who set up the enterprise together with his wife Jane using their personal funds.
Dawson was subsequently forced to liquidate the company together with two others — Spoornet (Pvt) Ltd and Nerry Investments — because of Mohadi’s constant threats.
However, Mohadi was left stranded after the High Court last year stripped him of influence in all the companies he was trying to seize from Dawson.
Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha ordered the liquidation of the companies, Red Queen Trading (Pvt) Ltd, Nerry Investments and Spoornet (Pvt) Ltd and appointed Barbra Lunga of Impact Trust and Executors as the liquidator.
Lunga went on to liquidate the companies and recently found buyers for Red Queen Trading, which operates a fuel depot in the border town.
The investor, AfricOil Petroleum, has already paid a deposit of $169 000, but Mohadi is allegedly eager to stop the investment.
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This forced Lunga to approach the High Court yesterday seeking an interdict barring Mohadi and his associates from interfering with her execution of duties as the liquidator.
Mohadi, his wife Tambudzani, business partners Alistair Moyo, John Josias Moyo, Brian Moyo and TK Moyo are cited as first, second, third, fourth and fifth respondents respectively.
The latest High Court application seen by Southern Eye contains explosive allegations against the minister including claims he issued death threats.
“Pursuant to my duties and obligations as liquidator, I advertised the assets of the three companies which I had been instructed to liquidate and I subsequently entered into an agreement of sale of assets in respect of the business assets of (a) Red Queen Trading (Pvt) Ltd (b) Spoornet Investments (Pvt) Ltd (c) Nerry Investments (Pvt) Ltd.
The first respondent (Mohadi) and others purported to appeal against the judgment, but the purported appeal was abandoned,” said Lunga in the application.
“I was then surprised late in the afternoon/early evening of Friday 26th September 2014 to receive a call from a person, who identified himself as the first respondent (Mohadi), who sounded very angry and rumbled on at length that Stand 1418 belonged to him personally and that he would not allow anybody else to take possession of it.
“I pointed out to him that the aforesaid stand was not registered in his name and perusals of the documents show that this stand is, in fact, registered in the name of Red Queen Trading (Pvt) Ltd.
“I also pointed out to him that these issues had ventilated and finalised in the courts.
“I then received a report from Never Ndlovu, a director of AfricOil, advising that he had received reports that the five respondents had acted in a way that deprived me of my control and possession of stand 1418 and stand 1419 and other assets on stands 1418 and 1419,” Lunga said.
In his supporting affidavit, Craig Hunter Pott, who was acting on behalf of the investors AfricOil Petroleum, told the court that Mohadi threatened to kill him the same way he killed white men during the liberation struggle.
“I was also instructed to report to the dispol (district police commander) at Beitbridge Police Station during the course of the day,” he said.
“I went to the police station accompanied by my legal representative Winston Tshakalisa.
“Upon arrival at the police station, I presented myself to the dispol. After that I was taken downstairs to see Chief Superintendent (Patrick) Majuta where he took my statement.
“While my statement was being taken, first respondent (Mohadi) stormed into the office and confronted me asking who I was.
“The first respondent advised me that he had killed white men during the liberation war and he could do the same to me.
“He further claimed that the property was his and that I was attempting to strip assets from the aforesaid property. After the first respondent threatened and almost assaulted my legal representative, he turned on me again and stated with a pointing finger that he was going to deal with me.”
Pott said he was terrified by Mohadi’s actions as the threats were made at a police station in the presence of senior police officers with impunity.
Ndlovu, a director with AfricOil Petroleum, in his affidavit supporting Lunga’s application confirmed that they had bought the company from the liquidator.
“It will be seen that the purchase for the assets is $2,3 million and we have already disbursed a fair amount being $169 000 and we intend to release the outstanding balance within the next few weeks to the applicant (Lunga) in terms of the sale agreement,” said Ndlovu.
“The actions of the five respondents as described by Pott are highly prejudicial to AfricOil Petroleum (Pvt) Ltd in terms of the monies already disbursed and also the large sum of monies which is immediately available and is about to be disbursed to the applicant.
“I, therefore, support in its entirety the application filed by the applicant.”
AfricOil Petroleum has already paid a combined $56 000 to the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority, Environment Management Agency and Zimbabwe Investment Authority to operate the business.
The battle between Mohadi and Dawson is so intense that the businessman and his wife were recently arrested in Harare after winning their case against Mohadi at the High Court.
They were accused of selling Red Queen assets worth over $1 million without the knowledge of other directors despite the fact that the company was theirs. They are out on $2 000 bail each.
In December 2012, Justice Kamocha divested Mohadi and his business partner Josias Moyo of the directorship of the companies.
He ordered Mohadi and his business associates to reimburse more than $340 000 they allegedly swindled from Nerry Investments, another company already under liquidation whose bank account the minister had allegedly turned into a “piggy bank”.
Mohadi was found to have authorised the company to pay for his son Campbell Junior Mohadi’s rental expenses in South Africa.
Campbell had enrolled at Lanseria Flight Centre at the Grand Central Airport in Midrand, Johannesburg, where he is training as a pilot. He was allegedly getting $680 for personal use every month from company coffers.
