Zanu PF official challenges $10 000 law suit

THE Zanu PF women's league secretary for transport in Bulawayo province, Nokuthula Sibanda, who is being sued over claims she misrepresented to her party colleague Nobesuthu Ngwenya that she will assist her clear a vehicle in Beitbridge which led to the latter losing her  vehicle that was later sold by Zimra has filed her notice of appearance to defend the summons.

Ngwenya is demanding the sum of $10 000 from Sibanda and officials from Inertia Agencies, James Majomela of Queens Park in Bulawayo and Corned Gonda of Dulibadzimu in Beitbridge. Ngwenya applied for a joinder of  Sibanda and the two after Sibanda testified exonerating them in a fraud case.

Ngwenya say Sibanda approached her on the pretext she was helping her clear her car at Beitbridge border post in April 2013.

Ngwenya in her summons  date-stamped at the Matabeleland North Provincial Magistrate Civil Court in Bulawayo on January 19 2015, Ngwenya cited James Majomela of Queens Park in Bulawayo, Corned Gonda of Dulibadzimu in Beitbridge, Inertia Agencies of Eastlea, Rhodesville, and Sibanda as first to fourth respondents respectively.

Sibanda filed a notice for appearance to defend the summons at the Bulawayo Civil Court. However according to records perused at the courts on Tuesday, there were no further details in Sibanda's notice, but she only stated that she will defend the summons and never demanded further particulars from the plaintiff.

The civil trial of the case has been set for March 31, 2015 when parties are set to challenge each other over the claim.
Majomela and Gonda from Inertia Agencies were reportedly fined $400 by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority over the same scandal.

Ngwenya refiled the summons this year to include Sibanda of Nkulumane 12 in Bulawayo, who had been excluded in her initial lawsuit which she had filed on January 20 2014.

Ngwenya said Majomela and Gonda had delivered the vehicle to her without any documentation even to date. She said when she asked Sibanda and the clearing agents about the documents they seemed to be refusing to give her and she had to report the matter to the police.

"Two days later after my report Zimra seized my car for unpaid duties and did not pernalise me because I had made a report prior the seizure. My car was later auctioned," submitted Ngwenya. "During the fraud trial she connived with her colleagues, the clearing agents and testified that they are indeed car smugglers whom I hired to smuggle my car. I realized with shock that Sibanda, Majomela and Gonda were actually a team and Sibanda had no intention whatsoever to clear my car. Her intention was to squeeze me of my hard earned money. To prove that they were a team, her evidence exonerated them."

She said when Inertia Agencies paid the $400 fine they were accepting doing wrong such that those irregularities caused her loss, wherefore, she prayed that the defendants pay her $10 000 being value of the vehicle.

Ngwenya had earlier on last year won a default judgment against Sibanda, which granted her permission to attach her property as way of recovering the money she collected from her while purporting to assist in having the vehicle cleared.

But on January 9 this year, Sibanda filed notice of opposition to the attachment seeking a stay of execution, pending a hearing on her application for rescission of judgment on the matter.

She claimed she was not served with summons papers to notify her of the court case after an application for joinder had been granted in favour of Ngwenya. Sibanda said if she had been served with summons she would have filed an appearance to defend.

But responding to her opposition papers, Ngwenya said Sibanda was a wilful defaulter as she was served with an application for joinder on October 23 2014 at her Nkulumane 12 home.

"Your worship the applicant (Sibanda) has shown beyond reasonable doubt that she is in wilful default," Ngwenya said.