Land officers in court

Two suspected fraudsters have appeared in court on allegations of defrauding desperate home seekers of US$4 200 after misrepresenting to them that they had been tasked to sell land in Banket by President Mnangagwa.

Charles Mpofu (65) and Naster Mbanje (56) were facing fraud charges when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mrs Yeukai Dzuda.

They were remanded out of custody to September 13 on free bail.

It is alleged that Mpofu and Mbanje masqueraded as land officials claiming to have been given a mandate by President  Mnangagwa to mobilise and collect money from individuals for land allocations in Banket.

The two accused persons collected money from various land seekers claiming that there were some farms that were handed over to war vaterans by the Government for allocation around the Banket area.

The court heard that Mbanje created nine WhatsApp groups and added a total of 289 land seekers.

It is alleged that Mbanje collected money from the land seekers which she would hand over to Mpofu.

The court heard that Mbanje pocketed a certain amount of money which she claimed was for transport, lunches and airtime for her to manage the WhatsApp groups.

The money which the pair collected was alleged to be for pegging the land, application forms and administration purposes.