Dabengwa and partners apply for company liquidation

ZAPU president Dumiso Dabengwa and four of his business associates have applied for the liquidation of their company, Duze Oil (Pvt) Ltd, after it failed to settle an overdraft of over $200 000 when the business venture became unviable prompting a local bank to issue summons against the company.

Dabengwa and his partners, Sara Nokuthula Ndhlovu, Kenneth David Drummond, Nigel Sebastian Noach and Bisection Investments (Pvt) Ltd are directors of Duze Oil.

The four are the applicants in the matter while their company Duze is the respondent.

When the company faced liquidity problems during the dollarisation of the economy, Dabengwa, Drummond and Noach bound themselves as surety and co-principals of a Stanbic Bank debt in order to raise working capital.

Bisection registered a mortgage bond on its immovable property in Kingsdale and they were given an overdraft of $200 000 which the company later had failed to service.

In his founding affidavit on behalf of the other directors, Dabengwa said the company failed to make money and subsequently defaulted paying instalments towards liquidation of the overdraft which has since ballooned to $236 854,01.

"In the past before the dollarisation of the Zimbabwe economy, this business was very good, but after dollarisation many new players have entered the market which has resulted in the profit margins being squeezed because of overtrading," Dabengwa said.

"However, I would also like to state that there was a serious management deficit on the part of the organisation's director. Second, third applicant and myself were not directly involved in the day-to-day management of the company as non-executive directors of the respondent (Duze). This was being done by the operations director."

Dabengwa said failure by the company to repay Stanbic prompted the local bank to issue summons against the company hence the application for liquidation, for fear that a forced sale of bonded assets would see the properties sold at a lower value.

He said they wanted the company to be liquidated so that the assets could be sold at a willing-buyer and willing-seller basis and at a price based on market value.

"Other than the debt to Stanbic, respondent has other creditors that it owes monies to. Among these are Zimra (Zimbabwe Revenue Authority), NSSA (National Social Security Authority), employees and other trade creditors," he said.

Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha placed Duze Oil (Pvt) Ltd under provisional liquidation and appointed Barbra Lunga of Impact Trust and Executors as the provisional liquidator.

Judge Justice Nokuthula Moyo last week confirmed Kamocha's provisional order, thereby placing the company under liquidation and Lunga as the liquidator.