Online Reporter
Zvikomborero Parafini
TWO men have appeared in court for allegedly defrauding people living with disabilities who were looking for residential stands.
Farai Chikuku and Aaron Madzinga are alleged to have stolen US$15,000 from the people they duped.
They were not asked to plead when they appeared before Harare magistrate Tapiwa Kuhudzai.
Chikuku is the chairman and Madzinga is the secretary of their cooperative.
The two formed the cooperative in 2012, together with Joseph Komechayana, who is already on remand.
They advised the five complainants that they had secured land from Harare City Council and that if they wanted to secure residential stands, through their housing cooperative, they would pay for the stands in instalments.
The complainants started to pay some installments to the housing cooperative through Komechayana.
Later on, the complainants were allocated stand numbers by the cooperative for development.
The complainants built structures on the stands.
In December last year, the duo called the complainants to a meeting where they advised them that they should relocate from the allocated stands.
They informed the complainants that the land belonged to Imbahuru Housing Cooperative despite the fact tat they had been collecting money from the complainants since 2012.
The complainants conducted investigations and found out that, indeed, the land had always been owned by Imbahuru Housing cooperative.
The complainants lost US$15,000 and nothing was recovered.
Mathew Masinge