TWO elders of the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) in Zimbabwe church have taken each other to court over a botched $13 800 deal.
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Virimai Chiminyu (39) of Entumbane, who is a director at Limitless (Pvt) Ltd based in Bulawayo and is also a retired Criminal Investigations Department detective, denied the fraud charge, when he appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Singandu Jele.
He is accused of having defrauded his churchmate, Regis Mupakaviri, of $13 819 through luring him to inject the money into a partnership in which he claimed to have won a tender to do jobs in Bulawayo, Plumtree and Gwanda, but later failed to give him his share of the profits after earning $139 716,75 profit.
Chiminyu filed an application for exception last week seeking an order placing him off the charge of fraud, instead preferring that the court treat it as a civil matter.
He indicated through his application that the matter was just a breach of contract and not fraud.
“It does not make much sense for the complainant, who knows that his partner the accused, has fallen onto hard times to now turn around and cry fraud,” he submitted.
But the State represented by Munyonga Kuvarega opposed the application, indicating that Chiminyu intentionally wanted to defraud Mupakaviri through the deal.
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“The accused intentionally and constructively deceived Mupakaviri,” the prosecutor said.
“He committed the offence with actual and constructive intent to defraud him and he departed from the agreement.
“The matter is not a civil matter, as all essential elements of fraud are clear in the matter.”
The matter was remanded to January 14 for a ruling on the exception application.
Allegations are that sometime in September 2011, Chiminyu went to Mupakaviri to invite him for a partnership in his company, saying he had received a tender from Liquid Telecom Fibre Optic Network.
Chiminyu allegedly misrepresented to the complainant to inject funds into business and they would share the profits evenly.
Mupakaviri injected $13 819 into Chiminyu’s company.
The company repeatedly earned $139 716,75 from the tender, but Chiminyu failed to share the money with Mupakaviri as per agreement.
Mupakaviri reported the matter to the police, leading to Chiminyu being brought before the courts.
