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Yeukai Karengezeka–Court Correspondent
A LEGAL practitioner has been arraigned before the courts for allegedly duping a Chinese national of US$170 000 in a land deal.
Emmanuel Maganjera Mukwewa (49), who was coming from home, was remanded to July 30 by Harare regional magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje .
The complainant is Huang Liqiang (49) who is into mining.
Mukwewa is also a notary, conveyancer and administrator of estates.
Prosecutor Mr Anesu Chirenje alleged that sometime in September 2023, Mukwewa’s accomplice, Richard Paswa, advertised on a WhatsApp group that he was selling a piece of land at the corner of Seke and Cripps Roads in Arcadia.
In the advert, Paswa claimed the land measured 20 000 square metres and Liqiang showed interested.
Paswa told him that he was the owner of the land which he was selling for US$400 000.
On September 9 last year, Paswa instructed Liqiang to meet him at Mukwewa Law Chambers at number 276 Samora Machel Avenue in Harare.
They met and Paswa advised him to pay a deposit of US$170 000 and the remainder upon the completion of the conveyancing process.
The court also heard that Mukwewa allegedly indicated that of the US$170 000, US$70 000 would be paid as the initial deposit upon signing of the agreement of sale and the other US$100 000 would be paid upon production of diagrams and circulars from the City of Harare by Paswa.
The duo allegedly showed Liqiang a fraudulent diagram which motivated him to pay US$100 000.
All the money that was paid by Liqiang was receipted by Mukwewa through his law firm and he allegedly converted it to his own use.
Liqiang waited for further developments so that he could pay off the remaining balance, but did not receive any communication.
On March 28, 2024, Liqiang went to the land site and was surprised to see that a fence was erected on it and he contacted the accused persons, but none of the two gave him a reasonable explanation of such development.
He made several efforts to engage the duo, but Mukwewa became evasive while Paswa was no longer reachable.
It was then that Liqiang discovered that he had been duped and made a report to the police, which led to the arrest of Mukwewa, while Paswa could not be located.
Investigations were carried out and revealed that no agreement of sale was entered into between Liqiang and Paswa, but instead, Mukwewa, well knowing that the complainant is a Chinese national who cannot interpret the English language, drafted an agreement of consultancy of immovable property.
Further investigations carried out revealed that the land that was sold to the complainant by the accused belonged to Newsprings Investments (Pvt) Ltd who bought it from the City Council in 2019.
Online Reporter