A land scandal spawning from the controversial Airport Road construction project has ensnared several key institutions in the country amid charges that the sheriff of the High Court was involved in the transfer of ownership of a property without following proper procedures.
A local company that was subcontracted by businessman Ken
Sharpe’s Augur Investments to construct the road linking the Robert Gabriel
Mugabe International Airport with Harare’s central business district has
brought back the spotlight to the scandal ridden project after it approached
the High Court.
In the new court battle, Fairclot Investments, trading as
Trucking and Construction Pvt Ltd, is demanding the nullification of a deed of
settlement between Harare City Council, Local Government ministry and Augur
Investments, which it says shields Sharpe’s firm from prosecution over the land
deals.
Fairclot was subcontracted by Sharpe’s Augur Investments to
construct the Airport Road before the construction company terminated the deal
because of a payment dispute.
Following an agreement made on March 26, 2013, Fairclot
constructed 2.7km of the road on behalf of Augur, which was controversially
awarded the contract on May 30, 2008, without going to tender.
Under the agreement, Augur was supposed to construct the
Airport Road with an understanding that 90% of the costs would be paid in the
form of the land and 10% in cash.
The title deeds for the land that was identified for the
deal were supposed to be kept by a private law firm until council approved the
road project.
Augur went on to subcontracted Fairclot, which stopped work
on the road after doing 2.7km due to non-payment.
The dispute was temporarily solved after “Augur pledged as
security, stand 654, Pomona Township measuring 273 299 hectares of state land.
It has since emerged that Fairclot separately sued the
sheriff of the High Court of Zimbabwe McDuff Madega for allowing the transfer
of the Pomona property that was surrendered to him as security for the deal
with Augur before Sharpe paid his dues.
It wants the court to declare the handover of stand number
654 Pomona Township to Augur null and void.
The company wants the property to be placed under judicial
management.
“Any and all transfers of title affected in respect of
stand 654 Pomona Township registered under Deed of Grant No. 2884/10 by and in
favour of any person between the date of upliftment by second respondent
(Madeka) to the date of this order are hereby cancelled,” part of the
application filed on May 20, 2020, read.
The matter was heard by former judge Justice Faith Mushore
who reserved judgement until she was fired by President Emmerson Mnangagwa early
this month over “gross misconduct.”
The matter is likely to be given to another judge for
determination.
Fairclot wants Madeka, who was arrested by the Zimbabwe
Anti-Corruption Commission in June and is facing 19 charges of criminal abuse
of office and illegal sale of stands, to advertise the sale of the property
within 10 days of the order.
Fairclot director, Grant Tilling Rusell, argued that the
decision to hand the property back to Augur was unprocedural as the company had
not fulfilled the conditions of their Airport Road deal.
Augur insists that it settled its dues to Fairclot that
were in local currency after government regulations in 2019 put the US and
Zimbabwe dollar exchange rates at par.
Simbarashe Kadye, on behalf of Augur, argued that: “Notwithstanding
the position of the law, the first respondent has instructed the second
respondent to execute the liability, which by terms of the law was given the
value of RTGS dollars at the rate of one-to-one with the United States dollars,
to be executed in the United States dollars.
“The instruction by the first respondent to execute the
said liability in United States Dollars is contrary to the position of the law.
“This is premised on the fact that by operation of the law,
the said liability was deemed to be in RTGS dollars,” Kadye said.
Harare North MP Norman Markham and property developer
George Katsimberis are also challenging the deed of settlement that left Sharpe
and his companies owning vast tracts of land in the capital. Standard
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