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Nyore Madzianike
Senior Court Reporter
A joint venture agreement between a land development company, Augur Investments and City of Harare for the construction of middle income houses in Harare and construction of the Airport Road was done above board with approval from Cabinet, the court heard yesterday.
The process of forming the joint venture went through all parliamentary adjudication processes and was approved resulting in the formation of Sunshine Developments.
Augur Investments revealed this in its opposing affidavit filed at the High Court where Zimbabwe Homeless People Federation (ZHPF), Knowledge Tinashe Kwambana and Warship Dumba are challenging the joint venture agreement.
ZHPF, Kwambana and Dumba filed an application seeking a declaratory order nullifying the shareholders agreement and the agreement signed between City of Harare and Augur Investments.
They also claimed that the agreement were fraudulent and the contracts were against public policy.
City of Harare, Minister of Local Government, Kenneth Raydon Sharpe, Tatiana Aleshina, Michal Van Blerk, Sunshine Developments, Registrar of Deeds, Registrar of Companies were cited as other respondents in the matter.
“There is in existence, a council resolution and minutes authorising Hebert Gomba and Hosiah Chisango to sign deed of settlement. The minister had authority to execute the deed of settlement.
“There is nothing in the deed that offends public policy. The transaction was above board,” the firm said in its opposing affidavit.
Augur Investments said it was only invited as a partner with access to capital with projects that it undertook through the partnership, being granted national project status.
“This was escalated to the parent Ministry, then President’s office. The transaction went through necessary parliamentary adjudication process and parliamentary approval was obtained.
“Cabinet and Reserve Bank approvals were also obtained. The project was granted a national project status as appears from the certificate from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development,” it said.
Augur Investments also said it was cleared by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission of any wrongdoing along with Tatiana Aleshina and Sharpe.
It claimed that it was not even mentioned in the Justice Uchena Land Commission’s report on illegal parcelling of land in Harare.
The land development said the cancellation of the Airport Road agreement was caused by a lot of delays in the supply of materials including failure to supply required amounts of gravel and moving of ZESA and TelOne cables.
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