Chiyangwa's deals haunt Zifa

Zifa (Pvt) Limited have challenged the annulling of the sale of one of their properties to a company called Olive Touch Investments, following a court challenge by businessman Maxwell Ndudzo on behalf of his company, Max Haivo Electrical Hardware, who had bought the house through the sheriff of the High Court.

The property had been attached after Zifa lost court battles against some of its debtors and Ndudzo bought the house following a public auction.

But upon initiating the process of changing the ownership of the property, he discovered that the house had since been transferred to Olive Touch, who had bought it from Zifa.

It is that transaction which was annulled by the court that Zifa are currently challenging together with two other interested parties.

Zifa's special purpose vehicle had been ordered by High Court judge Justice Priscilla Munangati-Manongwa to cancel its deal with Olive Touch because the property had been placed under judicial administration.

Ndudzo is accusing Zifa of double dealing after the football governing body sold a property that had already been sold by the sheriff of the High Court.

But Zifa through their lawyer Advocate Thabani Mpofu have challenged the High Court decision to rescind the acquisition made by Olive Touch.

In the appeal filed on the same day together with that of Olive Touch Investments, Zifa (Pvt) Ltd through Mpofu stated that Justice Munangati-Manongwa erred in allowing Max Haivo Electrical Hardware to have their way when the court reversed the transaction on claims that it was done fraudulently.

Mpofu claimed that the judge exercised academic jurisdiction and erred to grant the order sought by Max Haivo Electrical and Hardware as the company had no legal right to be involved in the matter.

"The court aquo erred in granting first respondent (Max Haivo Electrical and Hardware) relief which opened proceedings to which he was not party, had no legal interest and in which he could not legitimately participate," the grounds of appeal prepared by Mpofu read.

Advocate Lewis Uriri has been engaged by Olive Touch to challenge the High Court decision to reserve the deal struck with Zifa (Pvt) Ltd, which was then represented by Marshal Jonga, a staffer at former Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa's Investments at the time.

Court documents suggest that Zifa, through Zifa Private Limited, sold and transferred ownership of a house in Kensington to a questionable entity; Olive Touch Investment, at a time the sheriff had lawfully attached the property and sold it to Ndudzo on behalf of the association's creditors.

Among the creditors who were supposed to benefit from the sale of the house included Led Travel and Tours and Lazarus Mhurushomana, a former Zifa employee.

But documents suggest that Led withdrew its claims to Zifa, but court papers have revealed that one of its directors, Bernard Gwarada was linked to Olive Touch Investments.

In the latest appeals against Justice Munangati-Manongwa's ruling, Led Travel and Tours also filed their own papers on the same day challenging the decision to reverse the sale of the property to Olive Touch and raised similar arguments as those raised by Zifa (Pvt) Ltd.

According to a deed of transfer prepared by Ngarava, Moyo and Chikono Legal Practitioners in April 2017, Jonga, as documents at hand also suggest, illegally sold the house on behalf of Zifa Private Limited because the association tried to evade its creditors.

The court documents state that proceeds from the sale of the house were supposed to pay Mhurushomana and other Zifa creditors, but Jonga entered into an illegal deal with Olive Touch, a company that had no known operating address.

Fredrick Gijima, a lawyer representing Ndudzo stated in court papers that the sale of the house to Olive Touch by Jonga was fraudulent since his client had already paid for the same property through the sheriff.