MARTIN MAWAYA
GWERU-A prominent Gweru housing developer has been dragged to court for allegedly duping desperate home seekers through the double allocation of residential stands.
Kimlyn Housing Trust director Shelter Zenzele Ndebele and his brother Wallace Takudzwa Ndebele, who serves as the project officer, are at the epicenter of the stands scam.
They appeared before Gweru Provincial Magistrate Beaulity Dube facing charges of fraud and were remanded to May 9 for trial.
The duo is out on bail.
The court heard that Kimlyn Housing Trust, through Shelter and Wallace, double allocated stand number 26 to two prospective home seekers.
The two allegedly allocated stand number 26 in Montrose Estate to Tendai Gaadzikwa and Langford Chidziva Zvenyika.
Gaadzikwa (39), a resident of Mkoba 18, Gweru, is the complainant in this case.
It is alleged that sometime in 2018, Gaadzikwa joined Kimlyn Housing Trust and paid a total of US$1,500 in installments of US$70 per month for a residential stand.
In February 2020, he was allocated stand number 48 in Montrose Estate, Gweru, and signed a memorandum of understanding.
However, Gaadzikwa later discovered that the same stand had also been allocated to another individual, Arufayi, who claimed to have purchased the stand from Kimlyn Housing Trust.
After confronting the first accused, Shelter, Gaadzikwa was re-allocated stand number 26 in Montrose Estate in September 2022 and continued making contributions until June 2023, when his total payments had reached $3,300.
The complainant was then given a letter allowing him to start developments on the stand.
In September 2024, Gaadzikwa visited the stand and found that the construction he had started had been destroyed and Zvenyika had constructed a structure on the same stand.
Upon inquiry into the double allocation scandal from the housing developer, he was informed by Wallace that his sister Shelter had instructed him to give the stand to Zvenyika, as he had already paid the full price for the stand.
This was despite the fact that the stand had first been allocated to Gaadzikwa, who had already paid a total of $5,050 for the stand by that time.
According to court documents in the possession of The Midweek Watch, Shelter and Wallace are accused of acting in connivance and with a common purpose to sell the same stand to Zvenyika, thereby prejudicing Gaadzikwa by $5,050.
