High Court judge Justice Priscilla Chigumba has barred the estate of the late Zanu PF politburo member, Kumbirai Kangai, from selling Luna Estates, after a local firm approached the court seeking an order placing a caveat on the farm in a bid to recover about $3 million it invested in the property.
BY CHARLES LAITON
According to High Court papers, the applicant was cited as Divine Aid Trust Company, trading as Datco, while the respondents were cited as Luna Estates and the Registrar of Deeds.
In the application, which was not opposed by Kangai’s estate, Datco’s board of trustees chairperson, Brighton Manengureni, said he was seeking to stop the sale of the remainder of Paarl measuring 257, 6437 hectares.
“Through this application, the applicant (Datco) seeks an order of this honourable court that stops the 1st respondent (Luna Estate) from selling a certain piece of land situate in the District of Salisbury, called the Remainder of Paarl measuring 257, 6437 hectares, held under title deed of transfer number 1673/94, and directing the 2nd respondent (Registrar of Deeds) to register a caveat that would stop the 1st respondent from transferring the Remainder of Paarl measuring 257, 6437 hectares,” Manengureni said.
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The court heard, sometime in September 2012, Datco and Luna Estates entered into a memorandum of agreement in terms of which Datco was to subdivide the land in question and develop it into smaller stands for resale upon the completion of the land development.
“It was a term of the…agreement that the applicant (Datco) would pay the first respondent (Luna Estates) money towards the intrinsic value of the land to the tune of $3 000 000 during the currency of the agreement, which is of a five-year duration,” the firm said.
“To this date, the applicant has paid the total sum of $745 110 to the first respondent through the first respondent’s agents and nominees.”
Manengureni said Datco went on to develop the land in question, and used $269 948,25 to have the land surveyed and in the process incurred costs for the field work that was conducted and for an environment assessment certification which was done by the Environment Management Agency.
However, after using a substantial amount of cash in the project, the company said it had a substantial interest in the land and would be negatively affected if the property was to be sold without it having recovered its dues.
Datco was represented by Kadzere, Hungwe and Mandevere Legal Practitioners.