AN Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) Church reverend and his wife appeared in court yesterday facing allegations of swindling a local school operator of US$158 000 in a botched rent-to-buy deal.
The complainant is the chief executive and owner of Destiny Achievers School, situated at Plot 15 Glen Forest in Harare.
Titus Murefu (59) and his wife, Winnet, were remanded out of custody until July 22 by regional magistrate Clever Tsikwa.
The court heard that sometime in 2020, the complainant was allegedly advised by one of his employees that Lot 12 Glen Forest had enough space to accommodate the expansion of her private school.
She then approached the accused persons who misrepresented to her that they were the owners of the land.
The State alleged that on the strength of the said misrepresentation, she decided to occupy the said premises at monthly rentals of US$1 500.
In January 2021, she occupied the premises and ran the school from there until December of the same year.
In January 2022, after the lapse of the initial agreement, the accused persons misrepresented to the complainant that they wanted to sell the piece of land.
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She then entered into a verbal agreement with the two accused persons to utilise the place on a rent-to-buy basis with rentals pegged at US$2 000 per month.
In January 2023, the accused persons increased the rentals to US$3 950 and she paid up to September 2023.
When the complainant insisted on signing a rent-to-buy agreement, the accused became evasive.
She later discovered that the land in question was not owned by the accused persons and filed a police report.
