PROPHETIC Healing and Deliverance (PHD) Ministries leader
Walter Magaya and his wife, Tendai, have been taken to the High Court for
failure to repay a US$23 million loan to Homelink Finance (Private) Limited.
Magaya and his wife bound themselves as surety and
co-principal debtor to a loan extended to Yadah Connect (Private) Limited last
year. He risks losing his sprawling property in Waterfalls, Harare, which is
used as a guest house.
Stand numbers 167 and 168 of Prospect, Harare, measuring a
combined 7,9 hectares, were tendered as security for the loan and they become
executable upon failure by the debtors to service the loan.They also offered
mining machinery, equipment and vehicles financed under the facility as
security.
Homelink, through its lawyers, Shomwe-Nyakuedzwa Attorneys
filed summons for provisional sentence against Mr and Mrs Magaya as well as
Yadah Connect.
The company argues that the defendants breached the loan
agreement, hence an order compelling them to pay should be issued.
Homelink, according to the papers filed at court, extended
a facility of US$23 338 745 to Yadah Connect in 2018.
The parties agreed that the loan would be repaid in 33
monthly instalments of US$784 873,62 inclusive of interest, with effect from
December 31 last year.
Repayment, according to the papers, was to be paid in US
dollars.
Interest on the loan facility, according to the agreement,
should be charged at the aggregate rate of 7,5 percent per annum but subject to
change in line with the prevailing market conditions.
Magaya is yet to respond to the civil claim.
Meanwhile, the trial within a trial being conducted in the
case of PHD Ministries on charges of failing to declare tax of over $28 million
revenue accrued from 2013 to 2018 continued yesterday with board member
(finance) Nelson Marimo denying knowledge of the financial statements being
used by the State, writes Prosper Dembedza.
The trial within a trial was conducted after the State
tendered financial statements whose authenticity was queried by the church’s
lawyer, Mr Admire Rubaya.
Mr Marimo disputed the financial statements being used by
Zimra, saying only him can produce such information.
He said when Zimra officials raided their offices and
confiscated computers, he was in South Africa only to receive a phone call from
Winnie Matimati, an accounts clerk, informing him that they had taken
everything that they needed for their investigations.
“I am the only one who drafts such documents and my
computer is protected by a password which is only known to myself,” he said.
Mr Marimo told the court that he does not relate to the
contents of the financial documents as they don’t reflect the financial
position of PHD.
Harare Provincial magistrate Mr Hosea Mujaya rolled over
the matter to May 24 after the church’s legal practitioner Mr Oliver Marwa said
he wanted to call Matimati as a second witness in their defence.
Magaya’s church is being charged for breaching Value Added
Tax (VAT) regulations on over $28 million realized from sale of church wares
since 2013.
According to the State, the church raises revenue from selling
church regalia, anointing oil, holy water and its guest house. It is alleged
that sometime in October last year, the Zimra conducted tax investigations and
recovered financial statements from PHD for the period extending from 2013 to
2017.
The court heard that Zimra recovered financial statements
from the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe which were submitted by PHD for a loan
application.
The statements showed that the church realised sales
amounting to $28 706 040 between 2013 and 2017.
It is alleged that during that period, the church did not
submit income tax returns to Zimra. The court heard that during the same
period, PHD paid remuneration amounting to $950 522,99 to Magaya’s wife,
Tendai, directly into her personal Stanbic Bank account.
PHD also transferred remuneration of US$2 403 658,24 to
Magaya’s Stanbic Bank account and on both occasions, the church evaded tax by
not paying Pay As You Earn.
It is the State case that Magaya’s church had no records of
all goods and services that it sells and purchases, in violation of the VAT
Act. Herald
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