Buyanga cries foul

Businessman Mr Frank Buyanga has more than 200 criminal and civil cases against him and his companies before the courts that were brought mainly by people who took loans from his Hamilton Finance company. He said most of the people were now criminalising the cases in an effort to avoid paying back the money.

In an interview with ZBC recently, Mr Buyanga spoke about his legal troubles, claiming dozens of his former clients wanted to see him "in a van going to Chikurubi".

He claimed he was let down by the country's justice system.

"People are not accountable to their actions. People get into agreements. They are party to a process, but when it suits them, they renege. I recall listening to a speech by President Mugabe where he said there are too many people that are taking loans from the banks and who do not deliver according to the promise. There is a growing level of unaccountability within our people," he said.

Mr Buyanga's companies extended loans to individuals running into millions of dollars and the borrowers were made to hand over title deeds and to sign agreement of sale forms authorising the disposal of their properties in the event of defaulting.

Hundreds of borrowers defaulted and lost their properties to Mr Buyanga's companies.

One such sale to a couple, Pearson and Yvonne Mzilikazi, was nullified by the High Court in July after the previous owner Margaret Marume — indebted to the tune of $30 000 — went to court challenging the sale of her house in Harare's Greengrove suburb.

Mr Buyanga was not part of the High Court proceedings, which pitted Marume with the new occupants of the house.

This did not stop the court from making a finding that the power of attorney document authorising the sale of the property to the Mzilikazi couple, bearing Marume's signature, had been "falsified" — presumably by Mr Buyanga's company, Gutu Properties.

Mr Buyanga felt he should have been party to the proceedings or at least been made aware, arguing that he had evidence showing the debtors on video signing the documents they now claim were falsified.

Two videos of a transaction — apparently recorded in 2009 — were shown during the ZBC TV programme.

"I didn't know about the proceedings, I was not cited, I was not present and I was not a part of that particular court case," Mr Buyanga said on the Marume case.

"The justice delivery system is faulty," said Mr Buyanga, although he lauded Supreme Court and High Court justices for being of the "highest quality".

"I do think a lot of people are facing the same challenges that I do, that is why there is limited investment into our country. People basically don't believe that the justice delivery system is as effective and efficient as it should be.

"I would be going too far to condemn the police in my personal capacity, but I think there have been subjects and talk about corruption, failure to execute duties and I think that whole arrangement to some extent should be looked at."

Mr Buyanga said the new culture of borrowing and refusing to pay back had taken root in Zimbabwe.

"We borrow and borrow and continue to borrow, but when you borrow, you become a borrower or a debtor. You must realise that you've an obligation to pay tomorrow.

"That must sink in our minds, in our population."

He said accusations of falsifying documents were being brought up by people "feigning forgetfulness."