A SUSPECTED land baron in Bulawayo has been taken to court after he allegedly sold a piece of land worth US$150 million at North Trenance to two unsuspecting buyers.
Court records indicate that Kenendy Nyakudziwanza initially sold a portion of Subdivision 1 of Subdivision of Lot 42 North Trenance to United Kingdom based Zimbabwean, Blessing Matsvimbo, sometime in January 2006.
It later emerged that Nyakudziwanza also sold the same piece of land to David Shoko.
This came to light when Shoko confronted Matsvimbo asking why they were undertaking some developments on the plot.
Shoko later took Matsvimbo’s mother, Esther, to the High Court as she was the one in charge of the piece of land on behalf of her son.
“When Shoko took us to court that is where we produced all the documents which show that we were the first buyers of the land and he was the second buyer,” Esthe told Southern Eye Sunday.
The High court matter is still pending.
“But we decided to report Nyakudziwanza to the Saurcetown police for fraud and the matter is set to be heard at the magistrates court,” she said.
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“We went to court on January 23 and the case was postponed indefinitely, we are yet to get date for appearance.”
A subpoena dated January 17, 2025 for case number reference 234/25 stated that Criminal Investigations Department Southern Region were directed to “summon Esther Matsvimbo to appear personally at Tredgold magistrates court on January 23.
She was supposed to “testify and declare all she knows concerning a certain charge preferred against Nyakudziwanza for theft and that she brings with her and produce before the court a copy of the subpoena.”
A memorandum of agreement of sale signed between Nyakudziwanza and Matsvimbo in January 2006, stated that the purchase price for the property was set at US$150 million and the buyer was to initially pay US$100 million on the date of the signing of the agreement of which Blessing’s mother said they paid it accordingly.
Matsvimbo said they paid all the money to Nyakudziwanza before they started the development of the land.
A letter from council’s director of engineering services dated August 11, 2016 directed to Nyakudziwanza stated that council had granted a permit to subdivide the land in question.
Matsvimbo said after the subdivision was done, they immediately started developing the land, not knowing that the suspected land baron had sold the same property to Shoko.
