Blessing and Upenyu Mashangwa, the couple which took UFIC leader Emmanuel Makandiwa to court for alleged loss of revenue following the sale of their house appeared in the dock yesterday facing allegations of double-selling the house under dispute.
The call for them to appear before High Court judge Justice Owen Tagu came after a Harare woman, Jemina Gumbo, who bought the house from them in 2012, raised fraud charges against the couple.
The couple has been in the spotlight since the second half of 2017 after they cried foul for being victims of fallacious prophecy by Makandiwa and the accessory, his wife Ruth in High Court. The couple claims they lost $200 000 after their house was attached and sold for $500 000 when they failed to service a debt despite Makandiwa’s “prophecy” that the auction would be cancelled.
Now, in a fresh twist of the plot, Gumbo has surfaced claiming that the couple sold the same house to her in 2012 for $800 000. She claims to have made the payment on March 1, 2012, into the couple’s investment account with McDowells International Properties Investment.
In a High Court application case number 6476/14, Gumbo, through her attorneys Sande and Associates, claimed she bought the property in Harare’s Marlborough suburb owned by Carmeco Investments, a company where the Mashangwas were directors. It is the same property the Mashangwa’s claim was attached and sold for $500 000 instead of $700 000, which saw them incur a $200 000 loss, the one they have been claiming from the Makandiwa’s.
According to Gumbo’s court papers, the Mashangwa’s cancelled the agreement of sale on February 20, 2013, arguing they had not received payment from McDowells, which had since been shut down by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
Gumbo and the couple then entered into an agreement stating how she would be repaid her money, but the Mashangwa’s failed to honour the promise after successfully attaching MacDowells’ Masvingo properties. She alleged the Mashangwa’s, “despite demand on several occasions”, “failed, neglected or refused to pay the said amount”.
On the other hand, the Mashangwa’s want Makandiwa to pay them $1,7 million for recommending a de-registered lawyer, Tichaona Mawere, who later duped them, among other claims.
Responding to the claim, Makandiwa’s legal representative, Advocate Uriri last week dismissed the claims as false stating that the couple’s Marlborough property was attached and sold for $500 000 to recover a debt they owed ZB Bank. He said the Mashangwa’s were never indebted to ZB Bank as alleged.
He also said the property in question was never attached in execution as alleged by the Mashangwa’s but was separately sold to two legal persons at higher prices and the Mashangwa’s realised value from a double sale. Makandiwa has also since the last court hearing, denied knowledge of the $1,1 million that the couple claim to have contributed to the church.
Since the emergence of the new case against the Mashangwas, some people have begun to say that this is a punishment from God with replies such as ‘touch not the anointed one’ being thrown around.
What’s your take?
Source: Newsday