Gwarada paid for non-existent shares, court told

By Daniel Nemukuyu
A HARARE lawyer yesterday admitted to drafting a partnership agreement in which businessman Lawrence Bernard Gwarada was made to pay over US$70 000, for the purchase of 40 percent shareholding in Douglas Warriors Football Club, with full knowledge that such shares did not exist.
Mr Fred Gijima of FG Gijima and Associates drafted the document while representing Douglas Tanyanyiwa in the deal that later saw LED Car Rental Services director Gwarada losing US$72 340. High Court judge Justice Andrew Mutema heard that Gijima never discussed or had any direct communication with Gwarada to hear his input when the document was drafted.
The lawyer said this while testifying in the case in which Gwarada is clai-ming back the money he paid after the deal turned sour. Gijima said although the document contained issues of the purchase of the 40 000 shares, the shares did not exist and that the word “shares” was “loosely used”.
“There were shares on sale. In the strictest legal sense, there were no shares to talk about. I even advised the first defendant (Tanyanyiwa) to that effect. The word shares was loosely used in the agreement and not in the common legal sense. The first defendant (Tanyanyiwa) had instructed me to do so,” said Gijima.
Gijima confirmed that he did not inform Gwarada of the non-existence of the shares because he assumed the parties had agreed on the issue.
However, Gwarada’s lawyer Godfrey Mamvura of Scanlen and Holderness argued that Gijima assisted Tanya-nyiwa in defrauding Gwarada of his money through misrepresentation.
“I put it to you (Gijima) that you cra-fted a document to assist your client to defraud the plaintiff by misreprese-nting that he was purchasing shares from your client.
“You well knew that he was paying money for nothing. You actually knew he was purchasing the air,” he said.
But Gijima defended himself saying he was not involved in any fraud and that he was simply taking instructions from his client who informed him that he was engaging Gwarada personally at every stage of the document drafting.
“To accuse me of fraud, that is not proper because I was not involved in any fraudulent scheme . . .,” he said.
Justice Mutema is expected to deliver judgment in the matter after parties have filed their written closing submissions.
Mamvura undertook to file his pa-pers tomorrow while Moses Kamudefwere, who is representing Douglas Warriors and Tanyanyiwa, is expected to file his papers by February 25.
Meanwhile Douglas Warriors has filed a counter-claim for US$32 953,80 being the balance of the money Gwara-da could have paid in the deal.
In a defence outline read in court by Kamudefwere, Douglas Warriors ar-gued that Gwarada did not deserve reimbursement since he was the one who breached the agreement.