RUTENDO NGARA
TWO brothers-in-law, married to sisters, are at loggerheads over a botched business transaction, which saw one of the men losing US$1 million.
Tendai Jemwa, who is out of custody, allegedly defrauded his brother-in-law, Thomas Masango, who is the director of Savers Distributors.
He appeared before regional magistrate Clever Tsikwa on Wednesday facing fraud charges.
According to prosecutor, Ephraim Zinyandu, in 2007, Masango entered into various verbal business ventures with Jemwa as partners.
During their business partnership, they acquired several properties, including No 58 Spitzkop in Snake Park, which they allegedly bought from Charles Zinto where they contributed a purchase price of $29 million in 2007.
Zinto allegedly told the two partners that he had bought the property from one Jeremiah Chamba.
“By the time the parties bought the property from Zinto, it had not yet been transferred into Zinto’s name and it was still holding Chamba’s title deed.
“During the transaction, Zinto gave both parties his own agreement of sale together with the one he entered with Chamba,” Zinyandu told the court.
“Both parties bought the property with the intention to register it into Ten Jem Consultants, a company owned by Jemwa.
“To that extent, Masango agreed with Jemwa that before, upon or immediately after the transfer of the property is made into Ten Jem Consultants, he was going to be made a 50 percent shareholder and director of Ten Jem Consultants in ratification of their earlier agreement,” the court further heard.
According to Zinyandu, in 2012, Jemwa allegedly defrauded Masango’s ownership of the property by secretly collecting the file containing all transfer documents and agreements from their lawyer without his knowledge and consent.
He allegedly did this before the property was transferred or ratification of shareholding to 50 percent each in Ten Jem Consultants had been completed.
Jemwa allegedly went with the file to a conveyancer to fulfil his fraudulent intentions and manufactured a fake estate of the late Jeremiah Chamba which purported to have been administered at the Guruve Magistrates Court.
“Jemwa allegedly misrepresented to the Registrar of Deeds that the property was bought from Cephas Chamba, the purported executor in Jeremiah Chamba’s estate.
“The Registrar of Deeds effectively transferred the property to Ten Jem Consultants from Jeremiah Chamba by-passing Charles Zinto based on misled instructions from Jemwa,” the State further told the court.
Jemwa then allegedly sold the property and converted all sale proceeds to his personal use and as a result of the misrepresentation Masango suffered a prejudice of US$1 million.
Jemwa will return to court on March 26.
Jemwa who owns Jemedza High School in Hwedza, Philadelphia, Grasslands among others, lost to Masango in a case where the judge emphasized that he aimed to use the High Court to legitimize his questionable actions. The judge stated, “The court should not be approached to endorse falsehoods or transactions that violate the law. Courts do not exist to settle personal disputes or to legitimize transactions founded on material falsehoods and misrepresentations.”