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Leonard Ncube Court Reporter
HIGHLANDERS Football Club striker Master Masitara has been defrauded of a house worth $12 000 which he bought from a couple in Nkulumane 5 suburb near Sekusile Shopping Centre. The Bosso player, who joined the club from Botswana Be-Mobile League’s Nico United during the local league’s mid-season break, bought the house Number 3099 in Nkulumane 5 from Mr Fanuel Wurahwa, now late, in 2009 and paid $12 000 in full.
Masitara has however been battling to occupy the house for almost four years now as Wurahwa’s wife, Mrs Thandiwe Wurahwa, has been refusing to vacate the property.
The couple divorced in 1999 and the house was part of the property mentioned in the High Court and was to be sold when the couple’s children reached the age of 18 years and proceeds shared between the two.
Masitara, of 3153 Nketa 7, signed an agreement of sale with Mr Wurahwa on 3 December 2009 and a Memorandum of Agreement between him and the Bulawayo City Council was signed four days later, but without the involvement of Mrs Wurahwa.
Mr Wurawha died in September last year when his wife and children had started legal proceedings to try and buy him out of the house.
The matter spilled into the courts where the 32-year-old Masitara made an application seeking to have Mrs Wurahwa evicted from the house but lost the bid.
Bulawayo magistrate Mrs Vivian Ndlovu, sitting at the Civil Court housed at Tredgold Building, recently dismissed the application thereby reversing the house to Mrs Wurahwa’s name.
In her judgment, the magistrate said Masitara was aware that the defendant, Mrs Wurawha, was supposed to be involved in the sale of the house because she was entitled to half of its proceeds but he ignored that.
The MoA with the council was facilitated by the council’s former deputy housing officer for Nkulumane, Mr Owen Nyoni and the magistrate said Mr Nyoni was not a credible witness because he did not bother to view the property first. Mr Nyoni, she said, just fast tracked the transfer of the house into Masitara’s name.
The magistrate said the Bosso forward waited for Mr Wurahwa to die so that he could institute legal proceedings and involved Mr Nyoni in the sale of the house because he wanted to make sure that he got the property.
To recover his money, Masitara was advised to make a claim from Mr Wurahwa’s estate.
The magistrate said it was common cause that Masitara bought the house and that it had been transferred into his name through the help of Mr Nyoni who also confirmed in court that the house had actually been sold.
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