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the property.
This is contrary to claims by former Cold Comfort Farm Trust chairman Cde Didymus Mutasa who maintains that the school still belongs to the Trust.
The Presidential Affairs Minister insists the deal “was not done properly”.
However, documents in possession of The Herald reveal that Cde Mutasa was one of the trustees who sanctioned the sale of the land encompassing the school to Assetfin Private Limited in 1998.
Harare lawyer Ms Florence Ziumbe of Ziumbe and Mutambanengwe Legal Practitioners, who represented Assetfin then, last week confirmed handling the case but declined to give more details saying she was not feeling well.
“The properties are sold voetstoots with all permanent fixtures and fittings and shall not include the grinding mill and any other movable property on the properties,” read a November 1998 agreement of sale between Cold Comfort Farm Trust and Kudzai Chirima, representing Assetfin.
Cde Mutasa last week said: “The agreement did not include that school and the deal was not done properly.”
The agreement of sale, in respect of two pieces of land measuring about 70 hectares, also bears Cde Mutasa’s signature as chairman of the trust.
According to the documents, the cost price for the piece of land and properties was ZW$22 million of which ZW$4 million was to be paid on the signing of the agreement.
Invoices and other payment schedules made in 2 000 further confirm the sellers’ receipt of various sums of money.
Documents show that Assetfin then sold the property to Unitime Investments who “exercised their right” and sold the school to Herentials College last year.
Cde Mutasa maintains that the school still belongs to the trust and Herentals College, the subsequent owners, should move out.
The documents state that the trust was forced to sell the land for debt financing and reviving the Cold Comfort project, which was established as an empowerment initiative for blacks in 1965 by nationalist Guy Clutton-Brock and other well-wishers.
In that respect, the trust initially put in place a working arrangement with the late Israel Magwenzi’s Kama Construction to turn around its fortunes.
” . . . faced with a Z$15 million debt, we have to revitalise all operations and inculcate the culture of profits into our people and that ‘profits’ as such was not an unholy word. This… is very important if we are to seriously attack the US$15 million debt,” read some minutes from the trust’s meeting on September 16, 1997.
“Cde Mutasa remarked that he was quite pleased that he was passing on the operations of CCF to Kama at no financial transaction and that the only transaction he was happy about was that of passing on the torch to the young generation,” the minutes read.
The prime pieces of land were subsequently sold to Assetfin which in turn sold it to another Harare property developer Unitime Investments (Private) Limited. The transaction was sealed in 2009 and Unitime subsequently obtained title deeds to the property about three years ago.
Unitime preserved the school and converted certain pieces of the land into residential stands.
The company sold the property to Herentals College for $360 000.
High Court Judge Justice Andrew Mutema restated Herentals’ rights recently and gave a final order restraining any other party to lay claim to the school and disrupt activities.
Education, Sport, Arts and Culture secretary Dr Stephen Mahere, recently intervened in the saga after hundreds of pupils and parents stormed his office contesting the takeover of the school by Herentals.
The parents argued the school was still a communal project.
Dr Mahere said he would engage Attorney General Mr Johannes Toma-na’s office to challenge the recent court ruling while parents are unhappy with fees charged by Herentials College.
Online Reporter