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Nyore Madzianike Senior Court Reporter
Three City of Harare housing officials yesterday appeared in court for allegedly selling 150 stands in Kuwadzana worth US$765 000 without council approval.
Believer Mupawaenda (46), Rudo Chigocha (45) and Magret George (31) were charged with fraud.
They were not asked to plead when they appeared before magistrate Ms Rumbidzai Mugwagwa, who remanded them out of custody to March 3 on $1 000 bail each.
Prosecutor Mr Sebastian Mutizirwa alleged that during 2017 and 2018, the three identified open spaces in Kuwadzana 3, 4, 5 and 6 high- density suburb and created fictitious paying schemes.They are alleged to have originated fake layout plans before fraudulently connecting water for the purposes of selling the land to unsuspecting home-seekers.
It is said Mupawaenda, Chigocha and George sold 150 stands without council’s approval.
In a bid to conceal their offence, they allegedly manufactured provisional allocation letters and fliers for each stand.
Duplicate letters were found in Chigocha’s possession, the court heard.
Mr Mutizirwa alleged that the three were using old cancelled stand numbers to illegally allocate the fake stands where George would connect water.
The offence came to light following a tip-off leading to the arrest of the three.
Online Reporter