Ginimbi, Wicknell meet in court

IT takes a thief to know one!

One time friends now turned foes businessmen Genius Kadungure and Wicknell Chivayo traded accusations in court during a trial where the two are alleged to have defrauded one Evon Gatawa of over R1 million in 2012.

Kadungure denied defrauding Gatawa telling the magistrate that he was in fact a victim. He accused Chivayo of dragging him into the case. But Chivayo said he had never transacted with Gatawa.

Four witnesses testified within three hours. Gatawa took to the stand where he narrated how the two allegedly duped him of R1 046 890 using a fictitious company account after he entered into botched mining equipment supply deal.

"I almost fainted when I received our parcel," said Gatawa, who had ordered and paid for mining equipment.

"The parcel was very small, certainly not what we expected. We received four cellphone chargers instead of mining equipment. Only then did we realise that we had been duped."

Gatawa is into the mining business together with his brother, Enock.

Gatawa and his brother told court they do not know how Chivayo was involved in their case, but they had established that Kadungure owned the bogus company, Transco Engineering.

He told court they had tried to negotiate with Kadungure, who was evasive prompting them to report him to the police. But he says they were frustrated by lack of action by the police and prosecutors.

"We were told Chivayo was involved but he was never on the list of wanted suspects. I even went to National Prosecuting authority (NPA) to complain to the chief law officer (Chris) Mutangadura but there was no progress. The accused were not arrested. Nothing was happening to our case," he said.

Gatawa said he was advised by his brother to arrange for an out-of-court settlement. They contacted Kadungure and he agreed that he would pay $100 000.

He said by that time, their houses which they had surrendered as surety after they secured loans from BancABC to pay for the equipment were being advertised for sale.

Gatawa said they then withdrew charges against Kadungure who only paid $20 000.
But Kadungure, who is being represented by Jonathan Samukange, said he only agreed to pay the money to avoid being dragged to court.

A D Kabwebwe, a friend of Kadungure's wife Zodwa and a foreign currency dealer, told the court that Kadungure needed R500 000 to purchase wholesale gas from South Africa, but he only had United States dollars in Zimbabwe.

She had played middleman between Kadungure and Chivayo.

Kadungure, she testified, gave her US$50,000 which she handed over to Chivayo, who in turn released R500 000 into Kadungure's South African bank account.

The trial continues on Friday.