TOP Zanu PF stalwarts in Fort Rixon area of Matabeleland South have been dragged to court for allegedly illegally selling stands to villagers at a cost of between $400 and $500 each. BY SILAS NKALA
Village chairman Clifford Chifadze Machona (61) and Edith Gumbo (43) who is Zanu PF ward 22 councillor, separately appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Merlyn Mutshina facing fraud charges.
Both Gumbo and Machona were remanded out of custody to May 5 and 6 for trial, respectively.
The State alleges that on April 2 2012, the complainant, Zenzo Tshabangu, allegedly approached Machona looking for a stand for his brother Machona misrepresented to him that $500 was required to process the documents and registration of the stand with Insiza Rural District Council.
Acting upon the misrepresentation, Tshabangu paid $300 to Machona and was shown a piece of land in the area. Tshabangu cleared the land and built a hut.
It is the State case that sometime the same year, Machona went to the same piece of land, destroyed the hut and allocated the same piece of land to another person.
Machona promised to reimburse Tshabangu’s money, but failed to honour the pledge, effectively prejudicing him of $300.
The State alleges that sometime in June 2013, another prospective home-seeker identified as Moses Moyo approached Machona looking for three stands for his relatives.
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Machona allegedly demanded $600 for processing of documentation and registration of each of the stands at the local authority.
Moyo allegedly paid $1 800 for the three stands to Machona, who in turn pocketed the money and showed him the pieces of land.
Sometime in September 2013, Moyo went to the stands with his relatives with a view to start developing the area, but found out that the area was already being developed by someone else.
Moyo then went to Machona and demanded his money back. Machona paid back $180 and promised to pay up the balance, but failed to do so until the matter was reported to police.
In a similar case, Gumbo is alleged to have on June 5 2012 at Lochard Business Centre sold a piece of land to Mirriam Tshabangu for $400 after misrepresenting that the payment was for processing documents with the Insiza council.
Gumbo again allegedly sold another piece of land to Daniel Hlongwane (43) of Njube in Bulawayo for $450 after misrepresenting that the money was meant for the processing of documents with the council.
On the same day Hlongwane’s sister Nobuhle paid the money to Gumbo and after receiving the money she showed the piece of land to Hlongwane and later converted the money to her own use.
Hlongwane and the other complainants later reported the suspects to police, leading to their arrest.
