Paper trail reveals Minister’s fraud

According to the documents, the plot was donated by Walter Serocold Pell Edmonds to the then Ministry of Internal Affairs on 1 May 1954 and later on transferred to the Municipality of Salisbury through an endorsement on the title deed number 3662/1954, which stated “The said sub-division shall be used for a public place and for no other purpose”.

“On June 25 2004, the Secretary for the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, R. Pazvakavambwa, wrote a letter to the City Valuer and Estates Manager requesting that Subdivision K of Nthaba Glen Lorne be transferred to Dr. I Chombo on the basis that the stand had been allocated to Dr. Chombo in 1995. Prior to June 2004, Dr. Chombo had not laid claim to Sub-division K of Nthaba Glen Lorne. In the letter, R. Pazvakavambwa acknowledged that stand K of Nthaba belonged to the City of Harare,” read the documents.

On November 19 2004, Chiwanga wrote a letter to the City Valuer and Estates Manager to the effect that he had no objection to the piece of land being transferred to Chombo. However, the documents say he did not get authority from the Harare City Council to okay the transfer.

“When he wrote this letter, Mr. Chiwanga had no authority from the Harare City Council to consent to the transfer of the stand to Minister Chombo. Pursuant to Dr. I Chombo’s request to have Sub-Division K of Nthaba transferred to him, which was communicated by Mrs. R. Pazvakavambwa, the Town Clerk (Nomutsa Chideya) then wrote to the Council’s lawyers, Messrs Honey and Blanckenberg requesting them to transfer Sub-division K of Nthaba to Dr. I. Chombo as he had been allocated the stand in 1995,” read the documents.

Council lawyers wrote back to the Town Clerk on April 11 2005 requesting him to provide proof of agreement of sale between the City Council and Chombo and the Holding Deed for Sub-division K of Nthaba Glen Lorne.

There was no response by Harare City Council to this letter until February 2 2006 – when the Acting Director of Housing wrote to them enclosing the title deed of Sub-division K of Nthaba in the letter.

The lawyers responded in a letter dated February 15 2006, stating that they had not yet received the Agreement of Sale. The law firm stated that there was a condition on the Deed of Transfer which stipulated that Sub-division “K” of Nthaba only had a public purpose.

The lawyers, according to the documents, further pointed out that in terms of the Regional Town and Country Planning Act (Chapter 29:12) the stand could only be transferred with the consent of the Minister of Local Government.

“They then raised the question of the propriety of Chombo issuing the consent for the deletion of the condition of title in the Deed Transfer in view of the fact that he was the transferee, thereby creating conflict of interest,” read the documents.

On June 26 2008, the then Town Clerk, Nomutsa Chideya, wrote to the Secretary of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development stating that Sub-division K of Nthaba belonged to the Harare City Council and no payments had been made by the government in respect of the piece of land.

Chideya reportedly suggested two ways in which transfer of the land to Chombo could be effected. The first was that the State made an offer to pay the Council for the stand in order to make it possible for an Agreement of Sale document to be prepared between Chombo and the Council.

The second was that the State considered a land swap whereby the Council would be offered land of a similar size in Glen Lorne. “It is pertinent to note that at this stage (June 2006) no Agreement of Sale between Chombo and the government had been produced. Some six months later, on December 12 2006, Mr. W. Chimba, who had been appointed the Secretary to the Ministry of Local Government, wrote to the Acting Town Clerk agreeing to the proposal of a land swap as presented by the Town Clerk in his letter of June 26 2006,” read the documents.

On June 13 2008, Chimba wrote to the Town Clerk directing him to transfer Sub-division K of Nthaba to one A. Chimeri, with Chombo being the seller, meaning the minister “sold a stand that he never purchased himself”.

On November 4 2008, the lawyers wrote to the City Valuer and Estate Manager saying they had still not received the Agreement of Sale. On November 14 the Director of Urban Planning Services responded, claiming that Chombo had purchased Sub-division “K” of Nthaba from the government on January 1 1997 for $6,301.00.

“This was in contrast to Mr. Chimba’s admission in his letter of December 12 2006 wherein he stated that Sub-division K of Nthaba belonged to the City Council and that the Ministry of Local Government was agreeable to a land swap as suggested by Town Clerk Chideya,” reads part of the paper trail.

On February 6 2009, the lawyers wrote to the City Valuer acknowledging receipt of an Agreement of Sale between Chombo and Chimeri that indicated that it had been executed on September 5 2003 with the purchase price being agreed at Z$250,000,000. But the agreement was never sent to the lawyers as required by municipal regulations and only appeared in the City Council files in February 2009.

“Scrutiny of the Lease of Agreement, stamped 14 January 1997, that Chombo purports to have entered into with the State on January 1 1997 reflects that it is a Memorandum of Agreement between the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development and Ignatius Chombo,” reads the documents.

“The lease agreement therefore is a forgery which was created after February 2009, when the Ministry assumed the title of Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development. On the October 28 2007, M Chombo obtained a Capital Gains Tax Certificate with respect to his sale of Sub-division K of Nthaba to Chimeri. This document could only have been fraudulently obtained as Chombo never possessed title to Sub-division K of Nthaba,” read the documents.

Chombo promised to come back to this reporter but had not done so by the time of going to print, while Chiwanga was unreachable.