BULAWAYO High Court judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha yesterday struck off from the court roll the case of Bulawayo businessman Delma Lupepe and his former employee Tendai Madzorera involving a dispute over a house, to allow the pair to file other relevant papers.
Report by Richard Muponde
Justice Kamocha removed the case from the roll after a pre-trial conference, where it was supposed to be referred for trial and it will only come back before the judge after the necessary documents are before the court. Southern Eye could not ascertain which documents were needed.
The business tycoon is alleged to have offered to sell the house to Madzorera, but later reneged on the agreement. Lupepe, through one of his companies Electrical and Computer Technology Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd, approached the Bulawayo High Court in 2006 seeking to evict Madzorera, a former Zifa vice-chairman, from a house in Fortunes Gate, Bulawayo.
The matter has been dragging in court since 2008 with claims and counter-claims coupled with accusations and counter-accusations. Madzorera reportedly occupied the house when he was a general manager at one of Lupepe’s companies, Zimbabwe Express Services (Pvt) Ltd before he retired in May 2001. Lupepe also wants Madzorera to pay Z$40 000 rentals for the period he occupied the house after the end of his contract.
However, Madzorera is refusing to vacate the property arguing that Lupepe offered to sell the house to him and he accepted the offer and was only waiting for him to give him the price. He said Lupepe should honour the contract or buy him out through a payment of the market value of the property, as well as compensate him for improvements he made to the property.
In his affidavit, Lupepe said he never entered into any agreement with Madzorera to sell the house to him, but gave him a severance package as full and final settlement after the termination of his contract.
He claimed that what Madzorera was saying was untrue. Lupepe is set to lose three of his houses after a number of banks in the city swooped on the properties, which they intend to auction to recover undisclosed debts his companies owe the financial institutions.
