adminpersuaded to enter into a botched mining venture.
The commissioners, Kunofiwa Hofisi and Wine Maguta and their alleged accomplices Jane Hove (52) and Ntombi-zodwa Magura (41) have since appeared in court charged with fraud.
They were not formally charged when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Don Ndirowei yesterday who remanded them out of custody to August 18 on US$200 bail. They were also ordered to continue residing at their given addresses and not to interfere with State witnesses.
Prosecutor Ms Joyce Sithole alleges that sometime in October last year the complainant and her husband Eugene Chimpondah decided to go into a mining venture using their investment vehicle Seabridge
Gold Investments. Hove who is their church mate, it is alleged, got information of their intentions and introduced them to Hofisi. She allegedly told them that she and Hofisi were shareholders in a company called Nagoya Private Limited, which is in the mining industry. Hofisi told the couple that he was selling special grants SG2757 and SG2777 with gold ore in Zvishavane worth US$90 000 on Hove’s behalf.
It is alleged Hofisi arranged for them to meet Magura and Maguta who confirmed the grants and were taken to the site of claims. Maguta, the State says, was introduced as a surveyor and geologist in the
Ministry of Mines and confirmed that there were reports at the ministry confirming ownership and that the claims were lucrative. Hove allegedly told the couple that Hofisi wanted US$20 000 for introducing them to the project. Mr Chimpondah made a counter proposal that they would co-opt the pair into the project. They agreed and formed Golden Ocean Invest-ments for the purposes of the said partnership.
The court heard that Hofisi started to ask for payments after telling the couple that Hove wanted to sell the claims to another buyer. The complainant’s allegedly wired US$90 000 into Hofisi’s CABS
account in November 2010. On May 29 this year, the special grants had not been received from the four resulting in the complainant’s lawyers seeking refund. – CR.
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