Businesswoman under pressure to perform as she angles a final push

On signing an agreement with a prodigal Ezekiel Mtapuri who is under curatorship, in 2014, Theresa Ndambakuwa started to flag the Deed of Agreement she signed with Ezekiel Mtapuri to prospective land seekers. The land seekers were convinced that the land acquisition by Ndambakuwa was above board. The land seekers were allocated their pieces of land and they started making their monetary contributions toward the development of the land. The land seekers were rightly encouraged to build temporary structures as land development had started in earnest. Six years down the line, there are no prospects of regularisation of the said land acquired by the land seekers. Theresa Ndambakuwa is under pressure to regularise the land on behalf of the land seekers under Perfect Hope Co-Operative on Lot 3, Amalinda Rd, Hopely, Waterfalls, Harare.

Regularisation progress was hindered when Ndambakuwa's land purchase agreement was contested at the court by the curator to Ezekiel Mtapuri who is Rangarirai Mtapuri. Seeing no progress, some tenants who were allocated land by Ndambakuwa on the plot left and others remained. Others joined as new entrants, including a reputable co-operative whose members are now crying foul as to the legitimacy of the land purchasing process that has left them in a limbo.

Some impatient land seekers reported the businesswoman to police. In such cases Ndambakuwa would simply flag an agreement she signed with Ezekiel or flagged court papers and tell the police that her prospects of winning the case were high or she would refer the local police officers to Serious Fraud police where the main fraud case was/is being dealt with. This would water the impatient land seeker/ complainant's case to Ndambakuwa's advantage. Other land seekers where expelled by Ndambakuwa from the plot for defaulting on payments. The trend has gone on since 2014 as she gained land seekers'/tenants' tenure with an agreement she signed with a prodigal without the consent of the curator.

The tenants who paid for the purchase of land from Ndambakuwa have now upped their bid to have their land regularised by putting pressure on Theresa Ndambakuwa to perform on regularisation. Regularisation involves subdividing the plot, survey, civil works, council approval, land deductions from the main lot, among other processes.

The land seekers and tenants survived an eviction whereby Theresa Ndambakuwa successfully managed to get an interdict order to bar tenants from being evicted. This effectively put tenants on Lot 3, Amalinda Rd, Hopely, Waterfalls under her wings.

A court bid by the curator to Ezekiel Mtapuri, to have the deed of agreement entered into between Ndambakuwa and Ezekial cancelled, was marred by default judgements being passed. At the end of the day, it left the agreement alive, thus, litigants are essentially and legally on a 2014 position.

Besides the Lot3, Amalind Rd, Hopley, Waterfalls issue, the businesswomen have other land regularisations issues to deal with on her other projects. So winning the Lot3, Amalind Rd, Hopely, Waterfalls, case would relieve her and set a precedent for her other projects were there are irregularities. With such a fighting spirit, she may succeed.

As Theresa Ndambakuwa absorbs the pressure from tenants, she is also putting pressure on police and anti-corruption to intensify their investigations on the curator to Ezekiel. This is evidenced by her successful resuscitation of a 2014 fraud case in 2019. The hearing failed to take off on 12 October 2020.

Theresa Ndambakuwa's agreement with Ezekiel is specifically for Lot 3, Amalinda Rd, Hopley, Waterfalls. As a final push but a desperate attempt, Ndambakuwa is mobilising and priming tenants on lot 2, Amalinda Rd, Hopely, Waterfalls owned by the same Ezekiel Mtapuri, to report fraud en masse, against the curator to Ezekiel Mtapuri, to police on a corruption gimmick. Some tenants on Lot 2, Amalinda Rd, Hopley, Waterfalls signed agreements with Ezekiel Mtapuri without the curator's consent.

En masse reporting to police under corruption accusation as a strategy, it is believed, will help to strengthen Ndambakuwa's resuscitated case in order to acquire land through court processes without paying real property value. Courts encourage litigants to agree between themselves. The court is impartial and will never be used as a currency of choice to purchase real estate. The court feeds may be infested but the court will pick it up as it is the terminal point of the judicial service value chain. Ndambakuwa may be a villain and conspiracy theory cannot be ruled out. The story is unfolding.

The extracts of Deed of agreement signed by Ndambakuwa and Ezekiel Mtapuri and payment voucher (Affidavit) are as below.