Sherrif under fire over corruption

A HARARE man wants the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) to expedite investigations against the Sheriff of the High Court, whom he is accusing of fraudulently attaching and selling his property.

Norbet Njazi claims that the Sheriff, Mcduff Madega, corruptly transferred and sold his property at Adylinn, Bluffhill which was bonded by CBZ bank.

Njazi claims that the Sheriff deliberately did not advise CBZ about the sale. He said he owed the banks over $100 000, an amount more than the value of his property and the bank could have obviously objected to the sale, if it had been advised of such plans.

In a letter dated August 23, 2021, Njazi dismissed the Sheriff's claims that he was not aware that there were bonds registered on his house because such ignorance  proved that he failed to exercise due diligence when he was performing his duties.

He also claims that the Sheriff proceeded to attach and sell his house although he had been advised by his lawyers about the CBZ bonds to the property.

Njazi also accused the Sheriff of conniving with lawyer Kudzashe Gama of Gama and Associates, who was hired as a conveyancer, to attach, sell and transfer his property in a fraudulent and corrupt manner.

Njazi lodged a complaint against Gama at the Law Society of Zimbabwe and the matter is still under investigation.

"I write to follow up on progress regarding my case against the Sheriff of the High Court of Zimbabwe Mr Mcduff Madega, case ref RR36/07/19," Njzazi said in the letter.

"The last update I got was in July 2021 when I was advised by the investigation officers who are handling the case that the statement of procedure which was issued by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) concluded that the Sheriff did not have a case to answer because he acted according to the law and that he followed proper procedures to sell my house," Njazi wrote.

"However, we then held a meeting with the investigation officers on the July 15, 2021 to discuss the statement of procedure. In the meeting, I had an opportunity to go through the statement of procedure and I noted a number of anomalies."

He said the investigation officers advised him that they had also noted that some points given by JSC in the statement defending the sheriff contradicted High Court rules and procedures which must be followed by the Sheriff in executing his duties which warranted further investigation.

"In their statement of procedure, JSC said the sheriff was not aware that the property had mortgages, and that mortgage is not an encumbrance to a sale in execution and that a property can be attached and sold in execution of a court order in the existence of mortgage bond against the property," Njazi said.

"I am aware a mortgaged property can be attached and sold in execution but my complaint is the corrupt manner in which the matter was handled which resulted in me reporting this case."

"The second issue I noticed which is tantamount to serious fraud is that the Sheriff used  certificates in terms of deeds registries regulations certifying that he failed to locate my original title deed no 7199/2009 when he transferred my property to the new buyer. How could he fail to locate the original title deed when my lawyers had written two different letters advising him about these bonds? My original title deeds are with CBZ and the bonds have not been cancelled."

In June, Zacc recently launched investigations against Madega following complaints by at least nine people, who accused him of illegally selling properties attached by the courts.