Fraudulent Company take over lands eight board of trustees in the dock

EIGHT members of the Board of Trustees at the RCP Belmont Printers situated at Stourbridge Road Donnington Belmont in Bulawayo have been dragged to court for allegedly fraudulently taking over the running of the company by signing a Notarial deed of Trust which among other things reduced the general manager of the company's powers and authority when she was away in South Africa.

This they allegedly did when the then general manager of the company, Mildred Dube of Nketa 9 was away in South Africa. This then made them to be the new members of the Board of Trustees under the RCP Belmont Ownership Trust.

RCP Belmont Printers is one of the two subsidiaries of the APEX Corporation of Zimbabwe Limited and deals in printing business among other host of services it provides. The other subsidiary is Bardwell Printers.

The eight new Board of Trustees, namely Peter Dhliwayo (54), Esau Matshazi (60) of Mahatshula, Obert Gumede (52) of Old Pumula, Fedelis Kwindingwi (70) of Njube, Patrick Mhlathi Nyathi (66) of Old Lobengula, Patricia Ngwenya (48) of Lobengual Old, and Abeathas Sibhamu Thebe (67) of Entumbane were denying the forgery charges when they appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Charity Maphosa.

The matter was further remanded for trial.

During trial Dhliwayo told the court that the company was seeded to them as workers in September 2010 by the white employers.

"He informed us that he was going to make some documents that he had seeded the company to us," said Dhliwayo. "I signed the documents on this day because the general manager had advised us to sign on her behalf as she was in South Africa with her husband. For this deed to be signed as indigenous company at Mhlahlandlela, a government institution had voted that the deed we were using was a legal one. By then we had been gone up to June 27, 2013 to register the new draft document."

He said they had not registered the document by June 24 because they were told that they had omitted a certain clause of shares.

"Regarding the sharing of shares between management and workers, myself, Dube (GM), Gumede and Ncube were the committee who were supposed to draft the document," he said. "When we were at deeds office the complainant (Dube) informed us that she had been called by her husband. We asked her how we were to proceed in her absence. She gave us a go ahead in processing documents. We went to company and engaged directors and we agreed to insert our initials as directors of the board of trustees."

Others also corroborated Dhliwayo's remarks though they differed with him as to who signed the Notarial deed.

The state represented by Kudakwashe Jaravaza told the court that on July 8, 2013, Dube who was then general manager was away as she had visited South Africa. During her absence, the eight set down and crafted a Notarial deed of Trust which among other things reduced the authority of Dube and her responsibilities in the company.

They allegedly chose one among themselves to forge Dube's signature without her consent to facilitate registration of the crafted Notarial deed of Trust which was then given to one Herbert Shenje a lawyer who then commissioned it.

On August 9, 2013 Dube discovered the offence and demanded answers from the eight but they did not explain leading to her reporting to the police and the eight were taken to court.

Apex Holdings (Private) Limited was reportedly placed under judicial management sometime in 2013.