THE Harare City Council (HCC) stands scam involving land in Greendale has sucked in the Deeds Office amid allegations of the creation of fake deeds by individuals linked to the department as investigations into the matter continue.
In May this year, the HCC appointed a sub-committee to investigate circumstances leading to the occupation of stands 154 to 166 in Amby Township, Greendale where cluster houses have since been built.
The sub-committee is led by ward 16 councillor Denford Ngadziore.
Other members of the committee include councillors Prince Matebuka, Richard Pamire, Jane Bingari and Harare City Council officials Aaron Tayerera (housing and community services), John Mudzengerera (urban planning) and Stanley Kumbirai Chimbetete from the chamber secretary’s office.
The works and town planning committee appointed the sub-committee under item 3 of the minutes dated May 23, 2024 to investigate whether all town planning procedures and other relevant statutes, policies and regulations were complied with regarding allocation and occupation of 13 residential stands on the land described as remaining extend of Bingley, Salisbury Township.
Stung by the reports, lawyers representing Baytany (PVT) Limited, Muchada Legal Practice, wrote a letter dated October 10 directed to chairperson of town planning subcommittee Ngadziore responding to the article published by NewsDay recently.
The letter was copied to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, Registrar — Deeds Office and Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume.
Bytany Private Limited is one of the beneficiaries of the land where council is reportedly to have lost US$2 million on the land deals.
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“Bytany is the lawful owner of the following immovable properties. A certain 2 2438 hectares of land called stand number 173 Amby Township held under title deed of transfer number 5211/1996 and a certain 6 3125 hectares of land including vested roadway called Amby Township 8 of Bingley situate in the district of Salisbury all registered under the deed of transfer number 5211/86 which has stands 154 to 166 .
“The properties were acquitted from ANZ Grindlays Finance Zimbabwe Limited now (Stanbic Bank) in 1986. After the acquisition our client hoped to develop the land into individual residential stands, but the process could not be done due to financial constraints during the time.”
The lawyers said after the death of one of the shareholders, James Mutetwa, the executor requested for title deeds of all the properties owned by the client with the view of evaluating the value of the deceased shares in the country.
“It was from this request when our client discovered that an original copy of the deed of transfer 5211/86 was missing, against this background, our client instructed legal practitioners at the time to make an application for a duplicate copy of deed of transfer number 5211/86.
“It was also discovered that a character called Keith Moses Sherry had presented himself as our client representative. Upon further inquiries on the identity of this person, it was confirmed by the Registrar of Births and Deaths that there is no such person in their system and even the national identity that were used were invalid.
“Against this background, our client reported the matter to police and a case of fraud was opened and this is being investigated.”
The Deeds, Companies and Intellectual Property chief registrar Willie Mushayi yesterday said he was not aware of the matter.
However, Ngadziore confirmed receiving a letter from Bytany Private Limited.
“I am happy to have received this correspondence from lawyers representing Baytany Private Limited certificate of Incorporation number 120/85.
“They have agreed with our findings that the title deeds, agreement of sale, offer letters and receipts were all fake,” Ngadziore said.
The audit also found out that the letterheads used had anomalies as the signatories to the offer letters were still written as director of corporate services yet the department had reverted to its original name as the housing and community services department.
