A case at the high court has exposed fading businessman and former boxing promoter Stalin Mau Mau double-dipping after he allegedly sold a house to two different parties and has the gusto to stay at the house 13 years after the sale.
By Problem Masau
The matter which involves an inside job of an unnamed official from Homelink threatens to open a can of worms in the manner business at the housing facility meant to attract the Diasporans was handled.
The property under contention is Lot 350, which Mau Mau sold to Kudakwashe Mupawose who paid the sum in full and an England couple Joseph and Caroline Shonhihwa who were used as smokescreens to cover Mau Mau’s back.
Documents in our position showed that Stalin Mau Mau went into agreement of sale with one Leticia Kudakwashe Mupawose on the 9th of January 2003.
“The Seller hereby sells to the Purchaser who hereby purchases the Seller’s rights and title in piece of land situate in the district of Salisbury being Lot 350 OF Greendale otherwise known as 350 Valley Road measuring 3, 4116 hectares including a residential property of 3 bedrooms, sepearte lounge and dinings rooms kitchen and carport,” reads the agreement of sale signed by both parties.
The value of the house was ZW$42 million which is now equivalent to US$750 000 which Mupawose duly paid to Mau Mau.
Mau Mau then tried to sell the house to a couple living in England, Joseph and Caroline Shonhiwa. After initiating the sale process, the couple was informed that the house was under dispute and that Mau Mau had sold it to someone.
Under case 4408/05 the state said the registration of the transfer was delayed because the property was attached by a Caveat and Mau Mau undertook to effect registration of the transfer to Mupawose as soon as the caveat was uplifted.
The sate alleged that on the 8th of March 2005 under Deed of Transfer No 2146/2005 Mau Mau transferred the deed to his company and the The Power of Attorney to make the transfer was signed by Mau Mau’s son Tendai.
In a signed affidavit, Mupawose said the donation of the property was meant to frustrate her claim to the property.
The company later transferred the property into the Shorihwas’ name.
In their signed affidavits, the couple stated that they stopped the sale initiation. However, with the help of an official at Homelink, Mau Mau used their identity document that they have provided when they wanted to buy the house to change it into the Shorihwas’ name.
Mau Mau was paid two days before the house was transferred and home link never claimed the loan repayment until the loan tenure expired in 2010.
After Mupawose tried to do the transfer home link scrambled for a fore closure four yrs after the tenure had expired in 2014.
In a letter dated 30 September 2016, the Shonhiwas’ said to their best of their knowledge the sale of the property fell through due to the issues of multiple ownership.
This is not the first time Mau Mau has been before the courts. In 2013, Mau Mau escaped imprisonment by a whisker after he was slapped with a wholly-suspended 15-month jail sentence for driving without a licence and negligent driving when he appeared before Harare magistrate Blessing Murwisi.
The sentence was commuted to community service. On the first count, Mau Mau was ordered to pay $300.
A further six months were wholly suspended on condition that he would not commit an offence of a similar nature in the next five years.
On the second count, he was sentenced to six months in prison of which one month was wholly suspended for five years and the remaining five months were commuted to 175 hours of community service at Rhodesville Police Station.
Mau Mau was part of the Midzi war veterans executive which failed to account for ZW$40 million in 2002.
