More than 239, 3823 hectares of land worth 45 million in Harare were transfered to Kenneth Raydon Sharpe, a land baron whose name appeared in multiple court cases involving syphoning of land in Harare.
City of Harare and Sharpe’s Augur Investment had a joint venture under the the company Sunshine Development PVT LTD. Under the the agreement Sharpe was supposed contribute more than 70 percent with City of Harare pledging only 30 percent.
Sharpe dismally failed to his pledge as he delivered nothing.
This has been brought to light by the Zimbabwe Homeless People Federation in its recent High Court applications revealing how the City of Harare parceled the majority of land in Harare to Augur Investments Company which owned by Kenneth Raydon Sharpe.
The High Court application seeks a Declaratory Order to make land agreement between Harare City Council and Sharpe’s Augur Investment null and void.
Augur Investment is the same company that was awarded the tender to construct Airport road without following due processes before withdrawn by the City Fathers after dismally failing the construction.
This resulted in the vast hectors of Harare’s land being transfered to Sharpe’s Augur Investments Company under the banner of Sunshine Company (JVC).
According to the High Court papers filed by Zimbabwe Homeless People Federation through its National Coordinator, Shadreck Tondori as the 1st Applicant in the Founding Affidavit, Augur Investments under the banner of Sunshine Development (PVT) L.TD(7th Defendant) received 239, 3823 hectores instead of 99, 4197 hecteres in terms of the Share Holders Agreement.
The City of Harare, Augur, Investments, Kenneth Raydon Sharpe and Sunshine Development (PVT) L.TD are cited in the Founding Affidavit as the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 7th Respondents respectively.
“The 2nd Respondent is Augur Investments, a company duly registered according to the laws of the Ukrane. It has extensive business operations in Zimbabwe and over the years has been involved in a multiple court actions in the courts of Zimbabwe”
“The 4th Respondent is Kenneth Raydon Sharpe, who is a male Zimbabwean adult. He is a serious land baron who owns extensive land in Zimbabwe through the medium of the 2nd Respondent.”
“The 7th Respondent is Sunshine Development (PVT) L.TD a company duly registered according to the laws of Zimbabwe, formed as a joint venture between the 1st and 2nd Respondents in 2007 as fully appears from the first outline below.”
According to the court papers seen by this publication, some time June 2007 The City of Harare (1st Reapomdemt , represented by its Town Clerk Tendai Mahachi and the the chairperson of the Commission that was running it, Sekesayi Makwavarara entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Augur Investments(2nd Respondent) referred as a nonexistent company.
“The parties agreed on the following;
(i) That they would form a Joint Venture Company(JVC) with the intention that the JVC would;
(a) Build middle income houses and a hotel at Melbelreign Golf course, develop a commercial centre at Hopley and Mukuvisi phase one incorporating the Airport Road. (c) Acquire the necessary land or property for the operations to JVC and for the construction of the said houses.”
The agreement further states that Augur Investments was the beneficial owner of of 70 shares of $1 each and the City of Harare was the beneficial owner of 30 shares at $1 each. This would see Augur investments providing funding to the project for an amount “between US$20 to US$30 million the next …………”
“It is clear that a total 239, 3823 hecteres were fraudulently transfered to the 7th Respondent(Sunshine Development (PVT) L.TD) at a total cost of US$45, 418,910,00. The questions that arise; are on what basis was additional land outside the agreement allocated ? Secondly, why was land allocated without paper valuation? Thirdly why was land allocated without following the due process defined in Section 151 of the Urban Councils Act.”
The aftermath of the transfer of huge amounts of land to Sunshine Development (PVT) L.TD as the 7th Respondent, the company failed to honor its pledge in accordance with the agreement.
Some of the failures include the failure to inject the Capital sum of US$30 million indicated in the Shareholding agreement.
“They failed to use the loan agreement to develop the land for the purposes that the parties agreed, namely, among other things residential suburbs and a hotel.”
“More than that instead of developing the land baron selling and allocating part of the property, that ought to be developed.”