News / Local
Prominent lawyer faces $46,000 lawsuit
10 Feb 2015 at 10:25hrs | Views
Senior partner at Cheda and Partners - Mlamuli Ncube
A SENIOR partner at leading Bulawayo law firm, Cheda and Partners, Mlamuli Ncube, is being sued for $46,500 by a city businessman after he was allegedly implicated in a bungled sale of a house.
According to the State controlled Chronicle, the deal also involved a bogus estate agent, Charles Mawire, 34, who sold the property for $60,000 and allegedly issued fake title deeds to the businessman.
According to the summons issued at the Bulawayo High Court on February 2, Ncube was cited as the first defendant while Cheda and Partners is the second defendant. The businessman, Bernard Muntanga, is the plaintiff.
"Wherefore plaintiff claim payment of $46,500 jointly and severally with one paying the other to be absolved, being money due and payable to the plaintiff, the sum being owed by the first defendant who was acting within the course and scope of employment under the employ of second defendant in the abortive sale of House Number 8 Glenwood Road, Woodlands in Bulawayo," said Muntanga through his lawyer, David Mhiribidi of Mutuso, Taruvinga and Mhiribidi Attorneys.
In the court papers, Muntanga is accusing Ncube and Cheda and Partners of failing to honour their agreement to settle the debt whose deadline was January 31, 2015.
"First defendant duly admitted liability of this sum in an acknowledgement of debt signed on December 10, 2014 wherein he had undertaken to pay the said sum on or before January 31, 2015, but failed and/or neglected to do so," he said.
Muntanga is also claiming a collection commission fee in terms of the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) by-laws, an interest thereon at prescribed rate per annum and the cost of suit.
Ncube has up to Thursday to enter an appearance to defend at the office of the Registrar of High Court.
Mawire of Mpopoma Flats has since appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Sibongile Msipa-Marondedze facing a fraud charge and operating as an illegal practitioner.
Cheda and Partners has since been placed under voluntary curatorship by order of the Bulawayo High Court. Ncube and his partner, Sindiso Shepherd Mazibisa have since voluntarily agreed to surrender their practising certificates to the LSZ pending forensic audit of the law firm's trust account. LSZ has appointed Advocate Perpetua Dube as the curator of the law firm until March 31 when the curatorship expires.
The latest development comes at a time when a third of the lawyers practising in Zimbabwe are being investigated by LSZ for various cases of fraud and corruption which they committed throughout the course of last year.
There were 1,240 registered lawyers in 2014, but almost 400 of them are under investigation, putting a dent on the profession for which honesty is a cardinal rule.
Meanwhile, prominent lawyer and a senior partner at Cheda and Partners, Sindiso Shepherd Mazibisa, has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the Chronicle, accusing the publication of writing falsehoods, saying he allegedly defrauded a South Africa-based investor of $350 000 in a mining deal.
Chronicle published a front page story on Mazibisa's alleged fraud of South Africa-based businessman Titusa Ncube and subsequently wrote three follow-up stories on steps which were taken to remedy the situation of the alleged fraud by the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ).
Mazibisa said as a result of the falsehoods published by the newspaper, his reputation had been injured and the law firm Cheda and Partners was placed under curatorship
by LSZ.
Chronicle editor Mduduzi Mathuthu is being sued in his personal capacity as the first defendant while reporter, Thandeka Moyo, Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Ltd t/a The Chronicle and Choppies Downtown, have been cited as the second, third and fourth respondents, respectively.
Mazibisa demanded Choppies pay $100 for nominal defamation damages for distributing one of the alleged defamatory articles, which Mazibisa claims he bought from the shop on February 5.
In his declaration, Mazibisa said the articles were false, malicious and were calculated to defame him in his character, dignity and integrity because:
"While plaintiff (Mazibisa) concluded an agreement over a gold mine with Titus Ncube, the terms of the agreement were clear and straightforward on what happens, where and when, and evidently the first (Mathuthu) and second (Moyo) defendants have ignored that," he declared.
"There is no basis in fact for the defendants' malicious publication to the effect that plaintiff ‘swindled or defrauded Titus Ncube of $350 000'.
"There is no sum of $350 000 the plaintiff or his law firm, Cheda and Partners ever received as alleged by the first, second and third defendants.
"The publications of the stories are a result of first defendant (Mathuthu's) infantile, immature, irresponsible journalism and misguided encouragement for Thandeka Moyo to write falsehoods."
He said a reader of the running agreement would see or know that the alleged fraud was a creation of Chronicle.
Mazibisa said there was a plot to fight his illustrious legal career and public standing through the publications.
He argued the articles were calculated maliciously portraying him as a dishonest man and lawyer.
The lawsuit takes a personal tone, with Mazibisa describing Mathuthu as a "half-drunk, amateur, inexperienced and immature editor who has failed to get facts correct and neglected to do so, reduced the Chronicle to a rubbish newspaper through his gutter journalism".
According to the State controlled Chronicle, the deal also involved a bogus estate agent, Charles Mawire, 34, who sold the property for $60,000 and allegedly issued fake title deeds to the businessman.
According to the summons issued at the Bulawayo High Court on February 2, Ncube was cited as the first defendant while Cheda and Partners is the second defendant. The businessman, Bernard Muntanga, is the plaintiff.
"Wherefore plaintiff claim payment of $46,500 jointly and severally with one paying the other to be absolved, being money due and payable to the plaintiff, the sum being owed by the first defendant who was acting within the course and scope of employment under the employ of second defendant in the abortive sale of House Number 8 Glenwood Road, Woodlands in Bulawayo," said Muntanga through his lawyer, David Mhiribidi of Mutuso, Taruvinga and Mhiribidi Attorneys.
In the court papers, Muntanga is accusing Ncube and Cheda and Partners of failing to honour their agreement to settle the debt whose deadline was January 31, 2015.
"First defendant duly admitted liability of this sum in an acknowledgement of debt signed on December 10, 2014 wherein he had undertaken to pay the said sum on or before January 31, 2015, but failed and/or neglected to do so," he said.
Muntanga is also claiming a collection commission fee in terms of the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) by-laws, an interest thereon at prescribed rate per annum and the cost of suit.
Ncube has up to Thursday to enter an appearance to defend at the office of the Registrar of High Court.
Mawire of Mpopoma Flats has since appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Sibongile Msipa-Marondedze facing a fraud charge and operating as an illegal practitioner.
Cheda and Partners has since been placed under voluntary curatorship by order of the Bulawayo High Court. Ncube and his partner, Sindiso Shepherd Mazibisa have since voluntarily agreed to surrender their practising certificates to the LSZ pending forensic audit of the law firm's trust account. LSZ has appointed Advocate Perpetua Dube as the curator of the law firm until March 31 when the curatorship expires.
The latest development comes at a time when a third of the lawyers practising in Zimbabwe are being investigated by LSZ for various cases of fraud and corruption which they committed throughout the course of last year.
There were 1,240 registered lawyers in 2014, but almost 400 of them are under investigation, putting a dent on the profession for which honesty is a cardinal rule.
Meanwhile, prominent lawyer and a senior partner at Cheda and Partners, Sindiso Shepherd Mazibisa, has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the Chronicle, accusing the publication of writing falsehoods, saying he allegedly defrauded a South Africa-based investor of $350 000 in a mining deal.
Mazibisa said as a result of the falsehoods published by the newspaper, his reputation had been injured and the law firm Cheda and Partners was placed under curatorship
by LSZ.
Chronicle editor Mduduzi Mathuthu is being sued in his personal capacity as the first defendant while reporter, Thandeka Moyo, Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Ltd t/a The Chronicle and Choppies Downtown, have been cited as the second, third and fourth respondents, respectively.
Mazibisa demanded Choppies pay $100 for nominal defamation damages for distributing one of the alleged defamatory articles, which Mazibisa claims he bought from the shop on February 5.
In his declaration, Mazibisa said the articles were false, malicious and were calculated to defame him in his character, dignity and integrity because:
"While plaintiff (Mazibisa) concluded an agreement over a gold mine with Titus Ncube, the terms of the agreement were clear and straightforward on what happens, where and when, and evidently the first (Mathuthu) and second (Moyo) defendants have ignored that," he declared.
"There is no basis in fact for the defendants' malicious publication to the effect that plaintiff ‘swindled or defrauded Titus Ncube of $350 000'.
"There is no sum of $350 000 the plaintiff or his law firm, Cheda and Partners ever received as alleged by the first, second and third defendants.
"The publications of the stories are a result of first defendant (Mathuthu's) infantile, immature, irresponsible journalism and misguided encouragement for Thandeka Moyo to write falsehoods."
He said a reader of the running agreement would see or know that the alleged fraud was a creation of Chronicle.
Mazibisa said there was a plot to fight his illustrious legal career and public standing through the publications.
He argued the articles were calculated maliciously portraying him as a dishonest man and lawyer.
The lawsuit takes a personal tone, with Mazibisa describing Mathuthu as a "half-drunk, amateur, inexperienced and immature editor who has failed to get facts correct and neglected to do so, reduced the Chronicle to a rubbish newspaper through his gutter journalism".
Source - chronicle
