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Knight Frank (Zimbabwe) exposed

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  1. On 21 March 2021, Mr. Mutumwa Mawere wrote to Mr. John Makamure, the Commissioner of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), who is also ZACC’s spokesperson detailing the facts and circumstances regarding his personal house located in Mount Pleasant, Harare, that was hijacked unlawfully by Gwaradzimba using SMM Holdings Private Limited (SMM), a company whose control and management was extrajudicially divested from its shareholders.
  • On 6 September 2004, the then Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Hon Patrick Chinamasa (PC), issued a reconstruction order whose effect was to strip Mutumwa Mawere of the control and management of SMM’s affairs and replace him with an Administrator, Mr. Afaras Mtausi Gwaradzimba (AMG), his appointee.
  • In a thread of communication between Mr. Findi, who is heading the investigations into the facts and circumstances of Mawere’s house on behalf of ZACC, Mawere wrote as follows on 9 December 2021:

“It looks like there is no willingness on the part of Knight Frank Zimbabwe (KFZ) to look at the law and any plausible possible cause of action based on the existence of a contract between SMM and the tenant? What are the legal and constitutional consequences of this reality?

I never expected ZACC to be a bridge to corruption and injustice.

You guys are intentionally and knowingly giving me a ran around as if I am a small boy and more importantly as if I have no title to the house that was ambushed in a constitutional dispensation.”

  • Mr. Findi responded as follows: “Good afternoon. We value your contributions to the investigation and your views and suggestions will be taken on board as far as they strengthen our case.”
  • Mr. Mawere then asked: “Are you aware that since opening the case, I cannot take the baton from a party that is involved in my divestment like KFR?”
  • To which Mr. Findi responded as follows: “We hope our investigation will address some of these issues.”
  • Mr. Findi fails and refuses to disclose which issues the ZACC investigation was addressing in specific terms.
  • In a letter dated 24 December 2021, Professor Tichaona Mupasiri wrote as follows to Mr. Vambe, an employee of KFZ who has been dealing with the affairs of Mr. Mawere’s house:

24 December 2021

Dear Mr. Vambe,

1.My name is Tichaona Mupasiri, Director of Public Policy at the Friends of Shabanie and Mashava Mine (FOSMM)

  • I currently have an application that is pending before the Constitutional Court that seeks to hold the President accountable for the existence of the law that is not only draconian, but also repugnant to the rule of law.
  • I am approaching you in terms of s62(2) of the constitution which postulates that every person, including the Zimbabwean media, has the right of access to any information held by any person, including the state, in so as the information is required for the exercise or protection of a right.
  • This is with regards to Mr. Mutumwa Mawere’s Mount Pleasant house number 6 Durland Close, which is under your management without his consent as the legal owner of the property.
  • The issue of the house and the circumstances that allowed an Administrator, a creature of statute, to hijack with impunity a private property in a constitutional democracy has raised alarm bells to compel me to establish the role of Knight Frank (KFR) in undermining the democratic and rule of law space.
  • I am interested to know when and how Knight Frank (KFR) knew about its being complicit in managing a stolen property and actions taken, if any, to rectify this gross anomaly.
  • I would appreciate if you could furnish me with the intimate details of the contract that your company has with the purported owner of the property in question; if possible the contact document or lease agreement.
  • I would also need to know the bank details to which the collected fund were remitted.
  • If I do not hear from you with regards to this matter, I will be compelled to approach a court of law for answers.
  • In relation to the discourse between Mr. Mawere and Mr. Findi referred to above, Mr. Mawere continued as follows: “Should we wait or justice be suspended?
  1. I am a bit lost. Would you recommend that I take back the house without knowing the basis of my cause – criminal or civil? If criminal, who should be the complainant in the first instance? If civil, what would be the legal basis of any claim?”
  1. Mr. Findi then responded as follows: “On civil remedies, I recommend you seek legal advice on how to go about it.”
  1. To which Mr. Mawere responded as follows: “I have already sought advice and the lawyers are advising that ZACC is a problem on a straightforward matter.

They are saying that in order to sue, there must exist a relationship between parties.

Either one is a debtor or creditor.

Lessor v Lessee

Landlord v Tenant

In this case, what was the nature of the relationship between the parties?

The alleged lease agreement is between SMM and the tenant who has possession.

Does a relationship exist between the house and SMM?

If not, what would be the basis of any valid contract relating to the property?

Nothing?

No legal causa.”

  1. Mr. Findi then asked: “So what does this imply?”
  1. Mr. Mawere responded as follows: “It implies that the ZACC investigation is fatally defective.”
  1. Mr. Findi then responded as follows: “Don’t you think the conclusion is premature when the investigation is still on and the file is being perused.”
  1. Mr. Mawere asked: “Do you agree that SMM had no title to deal in the affairs of the house?”
  1. To which Mr. Findi said: “Those are our findings.”
  1. Mr. Mawere then asked the following pertinent questions in this dispute: “Do you agree absent consent, theft, and unjust enrichment or prejudice follows?
  • Do you agree that the tenant was defrauded and KFR was an accessory to fraud?
  • I have not been furnished with the agreement between SMM and the tenant and SMM and KFZ.”

Mr. Brian Manyati, the Spokesperson for FOSMM said: “If anyone had any doubt on what absurdity the existence and operation of the Reconstruction Act creates, this issue of the house and the role of KFZ in undermining the rule of law is a classic case study.

It is significant that Gwaradzimba boldly asserted that he had no knowledge of the house affair yet KFZ was paying the rent collected from a tenant to the account of SMM.

Under what constitutional order would this state-enabled theft take place.

I am curious like all to know whether a company under reconstruction qualifies to open a bank account as a company when the Companies Act has exclusive jurisdiction to regulate the affairs of all companies irrespective of their alleged indebtedness.

As members of FOSMM, we cannot allow this onslaught on the rule of law to go unpunished.

I am surprised that it has taken more than 9 months for ZACC to apprehend people.

This is a disturbing sign that the investigations may already have been hijacked.”

Experienced Chairman with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Strong entrepreneurship professional skilled in Negotiation, Budgeting, Business Planning, Operations Management, and Analytical Skills.

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PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA TO ADDRESS NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE CONSTITUTION

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President Cyril Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa will tomorrow , Wednesday, 22 March 2023, deliver the keynote address at the first day of the three-day National Conference on the Constitution which is titled Reflections And The Road Ahead.

The event will take place at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Gauteng, under the theme “Reflections on the Constitution: Rule of law, accountability, social and economic justice”.

The conference gives the nation an opportunity to reflect and engage in dialogue on the past 25 years of the Constitution, nation building, gender equality, youth economic empowerment, service delivery and social stability, with the objective of charting a way forward that builds on the gains of democracy.

As a platform for deliberating on continuous, robust debate on the purpose and effectiveness of the Constitution, the National Conference on the Constitution intends to broaden the discourse on the Constitution and encourage members of the public to participate in the conversation on constitutionalism and the state of democracy in the country.

Some of the focus areas in the programme include:

• Transforming and building an independent and resilient judiciary;
• Transforming and growing the economy as a constitutional imperative;
• Progress on land reform: restitution and distribution;
• Governance and electoral reform;
• Effectiveness of constitutional and independent statutory bodies in strengthening
constitutional democracy.

The conference will be attended by prominent figures of South African society including academics, members of legislatures, constitutional and independent statutory bodies, mayors, political parties, youth, students, business leaders, religious leaders, representatives of the legal fraternity, traditional leaders, media and others.

The conference will be held as follows:

Date : 22-24 March 2023
Time : 08h30
Venue: Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand, Gauteng

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WHOSE MINERALS ARE THEY ANYWAY?

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COCA COLA V CHINAMASA – WAS IT EXTORTION OR A BRIBE

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Here are the facts:

THE COCA COLA COMPANY (TCCC) acquired THE ENTIRE ISSUED SHARE CAPITAL OF CADBURY SCHWEPPES PLC resulting in the control and management of the global Schweppes businesses into TCCC value chains including Schweppes Zimbabwe Limited (SZL), a company incorporated in terms of the laws of Zimbabwe.

Mr. Brian Musekiwa, a Zimbabwean-born professional based in Texas, USA, said: “I had no idea of the SZL matter and its intersection with the SMM Holdings Private Limited (SMM) affair until I joined the Justice Under Rule of Law’s (JUROL) corporate heritage and legal literacy campaign powered by the Banking on Africa’s Future (BOAF) of which I am a paid up member. I have followed the SZL saga with keen interest not because of the Zimbabwe angle but because TCCC is a global corporate icon and just the idea that this company was party to an extortion and corrupt deal involving the payment of $2.7 million to Chinamasa, Mnangagwa’s key 2017 coup ally, is chilling leading any person like me to want to know if there exists any causal link between the complicity of TCCC’s alleged corrupt practices and conduct in relation to the affairs of the SZL localization and upgrade program concluded with Africa Resources Limited (ARL), a private company incorporated in terms of the laws of the BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS (BVI) and wholly owned by Mr. Mutumwa Mawere, a Zimbabwean born South African naturalized citizen, who Mnangagwa and Chinamasa using Messrs. Edwin Manikai and Afaras Gwaradzimba as surrogates, and the extrajudicial and the unconscionable theft of the control and management of SZL and other juristic entities using an unprecedented draconian and barbaric law called the Reconstruction of State-Indebted Insolvent Companies Act that was authored by Mnangagwa to bridge him to state power.”

Mr. Cornwell Mutetwa, a Zimbabwean businesan said: “I naively thought that the reconstruction project was solely premised on the affairs of SMM as a company and not on the person of Mawere and his alleged interests in companies like SZL.

I am pleased that Mr. Mucha Mugore, a member of BOAF-JUROL, inspired by findings in his MBA dissertation research on how public power was abused in expropriating Mawere’s relationships with not only SMM but many separate and distinct juristic entities, provoked in a whatsapp group that the record of this sad chapter in the corporate history of Zimbabwe must be corrected preferably in form of a memoir written by Mawere.

I was encouraged and remain so that I have flins myself being part of this noble project that has enabled me to interface with Mr. Mawere who has generously downloaded critical information that hitherto has not been in the public domain. I had no idea that Coca Cola Holdings Netherlands (CCHN) was directly and indirectly involved in the affairs of SZL until I read this:

Having understood that it was the Zimbabwe Competition and Tariffs Commission (TCTC) was weaponized to have jurisdiction beyond its mandate to regulate competition issues to become relevant in prescribing localization matters, I began to understand that under the late Mugabe’s watch the governance system was already broken.

My memory was then provoked to appreciate why the former Minister of Indigenization, Hon Kasukuwere, had a hand in the SZL matter and used his public office to cause ZCTC to require as a condition for approving that the control and management of SZL be divested and deprived from TCCC using public power.

It is against this background that the extortion inherent in the extract below from a meeting between SZL’s then SA-based legal counsel, an employee of Coca Cola South Africa Pty Limited, a private company incorporated in terms of the laws of SA, can properly be understood:

It was made clear to CCSA that unless a payment of $2.7 million was paid to the order of Fidelity Life Asset Management (FLAM) and SMM under Chinamasa’s control through his appointee, Gwaradzimba, the ARL purchased equipment imported from Europe and delivered to SZL as part of the upgrade project, would not be released to an SZL controlled by CCSA until a ransom amount of $2.7 million was paid to the order of Chinamasa.

On the advise of Gwaradzimba whose relationship with SMM was a consequence of a decree and an order issued by Chinamasa with no judicial involvement, CCSA according to Mr. Mokwena, in his capacity as the legal counsel of both SZL and CCSA, was advised by Gwaradzimba and accepted his advise to part with a bribery of $2.7 in million to cause Chinamasa to exercise public power to issue a notice removing SZL from the purported and unlawful and invalid control by Gwaradzimba using the order issued by Chinamasa in relation to SMM affairs only.

It is chilling that Chinamasa used public power to issue a notice dates 26 January 2006 and through his appointee was rewarded with a secret gift of $2.7 million to the prejudice of ARL and its sole shareholder, Mr. Mawere.”

Mr. Peter Makoni, an attorney and a member of BOAF-JUROL, said: “I have had the opportunity to read and understand the sequence of events leading to the confiscation of equipment acquired by ARL using the personal agency of Mr. Mawere as set out below:

It is clear from the fax above that neither FLAM nor SMM under reconstruction were involved in the SZL matter as promoters and sponsors to permit any lawful payment of a bribe of $2.7 million to Chinamasa using cronies like Gwaradzimba and Manikai.

Having concluded that Chinamasa was unjustly enriched to the tune of $2.7 million based on fraudulent representation that the $2.7 million that ARL, a company whose affairs fell outside the jurisdiction of Zimbabwe and, therefore Chinamasa and his surrogates, in exchange for a government gazette to divest and deprive ARL of the control and management of the upgrade equipment that was conveyed by Petter Trading Pty Limited as ARL’s agent, received pocket money to be used for ulterior motives in the amount of $2.7 million from CCSA.

It would please anyone interested in building a future of not only Zimbabwe but Africa that is characterized by the respect of the rule of law to take notice of the documents in the flipbook below:”

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