adminAuxilia Katongomara Court Reporter
A BOOKKEEPER employed by Majoko and Majoko legal practitioners in Bulawayo has denied allegations that he assaulted a client who was allegedly demanding money from trust funds without authorisation.Tawanda Muchongwe, 45, a bookkeeper and not a lawyer as previously reported, denied assaulting Comfort Dzuda, who engaged the law firm to effect a transfer from her late father’s estate.
The court heard that Dzuda sold her late father’s house in Nkulumane for $25, 000 to one Bongani Moyo and the money was transferred to Majoko & Majoko Trust Account.
At the time of the sale, no one had been appointed as the estate’s executor and Dzuda and Moyo then agreed that some monies be disbursed to the woman as well as her siblings in order to enable them to register the estate. “It was agreed with the complainant that no further monies would be disbursed until letters of administration had been issued and consent to the transfer of the property signed by the master,” said Muchongwe in his defence.
“Without obtaining the Master’s estate release certificate, the complainant on the 4th of July 2014 demanded to be paid the balance of the purchase price, a demand the purchaser had declined to accede to.”
Muchongwe said when he pointed out to Dzuda that she was seeking to unilaterally vary the agreement by seeking to be paid before there was the Master’s release, the woman allegedly became verbally abusive, calling him dull and an “idiot”.
However, Dzuda told the court that she told Muchongwe that he was dull after he questioned the authenticity of the documents she was producing to him to access funds from the law firm. “I then said he was either insulting my intelligence or he was dull since he was looking at a document with a magistrate’s signature,” said Dzuda.
She said after that, the bookkeeper poked her on the face from across the table before he stood up and lifted her by the shoulder from behind at the same time hitting her with fists. The trial continues today.
derick.khumalo