Chiyangwa donates US$1,6m to University of Zimbabwe
29/04/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
PROPERTY tycoon Phillip Chiyangwa donated US$1,6 million at a fundraising dinner for the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) on Saturday night.
Chiyangwa – who had two children graduate from the university – said the money will be used for the construction of a chapel which is one of nearly a dozen capital projects identified for funding by the university authorities.
“There is currently no church at the UZ. Where there is no God, there is a problem,” Chiyangwa told New Zimbabwe.com after making his pledge.
“Over the years, there has been too many riots and injuries... there must be some peace.”
The businessman, famed for his expensive tastes and philanthropy, said he was moved to chip in because the fundraising campaign championed by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara was a “genuine campaign to make a difference in the community”.
“I made the commitment because I have got the money. God gives me favour every day,” he added.
The dinner at the university’s Great Hall and attended by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, had set a target to raise US$10 million. Nearly 600 guests each paid US$200 to attend.
Several companies made cash donations, while others pledged to fund specific projects identified by the fundraising committee which is seeking to raise a minimum of US$70 million.
The Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe donated US$200,000, TN bank US$150,000, ZNBC Group US$100,000 and FBC US$10,000.
Mbada Diamonds said it would adopt one university department.
Mutambara, who is patron of the University of Zimbabwe Training Programme, said “very few of Africa’s newly-rich and those in influential positions give back to wider causes beyond their families and immediate communities”, including the UZ’s 65,000 graduates since 1957.
“We are aggressively pursuing this principle of Africans giving back to their own institutions, starting with the University of Zimbabwe,” Mutambara said.
A committee of trustees to lead the fundraising effort includes some of the UZ’s most notable alumni including Finance Minister Tendai Biti, Africa Sun CEO Shingi Mutasa, TN CEO Tawanda Nyambirai, Cyril Ruwende (Diaspora USA), Professor Rueben Simoyi (Diaspora USA), Alex Magaisa (Diaspora UK) and Brian Kagoro (Diaspora SA).
The committee is pursuing an ambitious programme to get all the UZ’s graduates since 1957 to donate US$100 each and breathe life to the institution which is struggling under spending cuts in education by the cash-strapped government.
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Chiyangwa contests land ruling
Wednesday, 23 November 2011 00:00
Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
BUSINESSMAN Mr Philip Chiyangwa has filed an appeal at the Supreme Court challenging the confirmation of Government's compulsory acquisition of 780 hectares of land belonging to his two firms by the Administrative Court. Administrative Court President Herbert Mandeya last week confirmed the acquisition and declared Nyarungu Farm and subdivision of Stoneridge Farm State land.
The court held that the Government had shown good cause to acquire the land, being to provide accommodation to citizens who do not own houses. It was also the court's finding that Pinnacle Properties and Jetmaster Properties were profit-oriented and it was in the public interest that the land should be acquired by the State.
Mr Chiyangwa, who owns Pinnacle Holdings and Jetmaster Properties, yesterday contested the ruling through his lawyers. Advocate Lewis Uriri, who was being instructed by Kantor and Immerman law firm, filed an appeal contesting the whole judgment by the Administrative Court.
According to the notice of appeal filed yesterday, the lower court confirmed the compulsory acquisition of land when there was a contradiction on the reason for such acquisition.
"The court a quo erred in granting the application for acquisition on the grounds that it was reasonably necessary for town planning purposes when in the preliminary notices published in the Gazette, the acquisition was said to be necessary for urban expansion.
"Put differently, once the appellants met the gazetted motive of the acquisition with the submission that the lands were already urban lands and could not be acquired for urban expansion, it was not open to the respondent (Minister of Lands) to abandon the gazetted purpose and move for confirmation on the same gazette but on grounds other than those gazetted," read the papers.
The Administrative Court, according to the notice appeal, erred in confirming acquisition on grounds other than the gazetted ones.
The lawyers argue that the acquisition in question was meant to "clothe with the cloak of legality a prior existing extra-legal acquisition".
It is also argued that the absence of evidence corroborating the intended urban development by the Government on the property called for the need to appeal.
"No evidence exists regarding the urban development that the respondent seeks to undertake on the property other than to simply allocate it to private individuals and associations named in its founding papers.
"The respondent has not shown due cause or reason for its wish to acquire these particular properties, what it will do with the same and how many under-privileged people will benefit from the acquisition directly," the papers read.
It was also argued that even if the acquisition was proper, the Government was supposed to compensate the two firms that owned the land.
The Government, according to the papers, did not have funds to compensate the owner hence the acquisition of the land without fair compensation would amount to a breach of the provisions of Section 16 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
The two firms also challenged the criteria that Government used in identifying land for compulsory acquisition.
They also contest the idea that council, which at law is allowed to acquire such land, was left out in the acquisition case.
On preliminary objections that were overruled by the court, the two firms argued that the Government approached the court with dirty hands and that it had no right of audience.
"The respondent approached the court for an order confirming acquisition of the pieces of land in issue at a time it had already caused the settlement thereon of the intended beneficiaries of the acquisition without due process.
"The settlement and the continued occupation of the said beneficiaries on the pieces of land in question was in flagrant disobedience of extant orders of the High Court," the papers read.
Labels: LAND RIGHTS, PHILLIP CHIYANGWA
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Rushwaya, Chiyangwa split AAG
by Staff Reporter
06/04/2011 00:00:00
THE Affirmative Action Group (AAG) has been rocked by a major split after founding leader Phillip Chiyangwa tried to impose disgraced former ZIFA CEO Henrietta Rushwaya as a vice president. The entire AAG board led by Supa Mandiwanzira has resigned in protest.
Rushwaya, axed as ZIFA CEO after he was fingered as the nexus of a match fixing scandal involving the national team, announced her new position in a newspaper, forcing the AAG board to issue a statement disowning her.
But Chiyangwa stepped into the row, revealing that he had appointed Rushwaya, claiming: “I am the founding president and I am the sole appointing authority.”
The AAG’s executive director Davison Gomo said: “The founders of the AAG believe that they have perpetual power to control the organisation. They believe that they have executive authority in spite of an executive authority running the organisation.
“If an organisation is privately and individually owned, the owner has a right to decide as he pleases. Mr Chiyangwa has made it very clear that he owns this organisation and he must do as he pleases. I think it in his interest to run AAG as he wants.”
The oft-radical lobby group which has been at the forefront of championing black economic empowerment had, among other members on its board, Mandiwanzira, Temba Mliswa, Advocate Farai Mutamangira and Sam Ncube.
Labels: AAG, PHILLIP CHIYANGWA
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Entire Affirmative Action Group board resigns
By: Philip Murombedzi
Posted: Monday, April 4, 2011 10:59 pm
THE entire Affirmative Action Group of Zimbabwe board has resigned and is set to form another affirmative action group that is professional and free of control and personalisation by individuals.
The move follows a controversial appointment made by businessman Philip Chiyangwa to unilaterally appoint embattled former Zimbabwe Football Association chair, Henrietta Rushwaya, as vice president of the black empowerment organisation. Chiyangwa is a founder member of the AAG.
“The entire board has resigned following the controversial appointment,” said a source in the executive to the Zimbabwe Guardian on Monday
“We cannot have individuals (Chiyangwa) privatising and personalising an organisation that has a national outlook and whose objects are so important to drive the national economic empowerment and indigenisation process”.
The source continued: “We recognise that Chiyangwa was a founder member of the organisation, but we cannot have individuals arrogating themselves responsibilities that are held by a group of people, the AAG Board. We had to exorcise this demon that was making it difficult for the organisation to move forward.”
Chiyangwa appointed Rushwaya as vice president responsible for international empowerment and corporate affairs and a businesswoman, Jennifer Mhlanga as vice president for gender empowerment without consulting the AAG.
The AAG national executive issued a statement disowning Rushwaya, saying she was not part of AAG and that there were no presidential vacancies in the organisation.
Chiyangwa later gave an interview saying the AAG constitution granted him ‘exclusive powers’ to appoint the presidium by virtue of being the founder president and chairman.
He said he was the sole appointing authority and that no one could challenge the appointments within the AAG ranks.
Our source argued that Chiyangwa’s statement was tantamount to personalisation of the institution and there was no need for them to remain in that group. “For the AAG to be truly broadbased and people-driven, the process has to start from the bottom up, not the other way round.”
“Chiyangwa is free to go ahead with reconstituting the AAG. We will convene on Friday and form a new organisation that will take over the work we have been doing within the AAG,” the source added.
“The entire executive resigned effective today (Friday 4 April)”.
The former AAG executive had Supa Mandiwanzira as its president, three vice presidents, namely Sam Ncube, Themba Mliswa and Advocate Farai Mtamangira. Other members included secretary general Tafadzwa Musarara, Elifas Mashaba treasurer general, national committee member Chamu Chiwanza and the executive director Dr. Davison Gomo.
AAG executive director Dr Davison Gomo has also resigned.
Efforts to reach Chiyangwa proved fruitless at the time of going to press.
Labels: AAG, PHILLIP CHIYANGWA
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Chiyangwa book promises to make billionaires
by Staff Reporter
01/03/2011 00:00:00
For close to three decades, Phillip Chiyangwa has sold everything from tomatoes, shoes through to property, in the process amassing a fortune which has positioned him as one of Zimbabwe’s richest people.
Showy and unashamedly immodest, the property tycoon speaks the language of money. Now he says he wants to turn more Zimbabweans into millionaires and billionaires through a new book, ‘Common Sense To Become A Billionaire$’, which is released later this year.
The book, Chiyangwa says, will be released in four stages, the first exploring his early life and later series delving into his business with concrete steps young entrepreneurs can follow to make it in business:
The following is an excerpt from the new book:
“The name Phillip Chiyangwa has become a household name among the young and the old, business and non-business people, and it is synonymous with affluence and money. Whether you love him or hate him, you cannot help but admire him – he is an entrepreneur ordinaire.
Phillip was born in 1959 in Chegutu of poor parents. The eighth born in a family of fourteen, Phillip claims that the manner and ways in which he grew up taught him to be street smart – never to sleep and never to give anybody a chance.
“The first chance is mine”. This is a thought process that has underpinned Phillip’s approach to business over the years. He thinks of himself as a shrewd businessman. Speaking as guest of honour at the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce business awards in Gweru in 2008, Phillip said, “I have got a doctorate in common sense – I start where professionals and professors stop”.
Phillip thinks himself as always the first and ahead of the pack, and that is what he has become because according to the Secret, we become what we think – “thoughts become things”.
By this thought process, he asks or commands the universe to make him first, and he believes and lives it. His focus is on being first, and that is what preoccupies his mind. He carries around a mental picture of a man who is smart and ahead of his peers, and he speaks and acts accordingly.
According to the Secret, that is the creative process and the universe obeys. As a result of this, Phillip has scored many firsts in his life. At one time he had a stint at promoting boxing where he raised the likes of the late Proud Chinembiri “Kilimanjaro”, the man mountain who became the All Africa Heavy Weight boxing champion and almost challenged for the World Heavy Weight Championship.
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Phillip scored yet another first when he successfully brought the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to a packed sports stadium in Harare. An American who was in the entourage said about him: “Phillip is so sharp and smart that even if he were to come to America or the United Kingdom, he will make it big time.”
It was another first for Phillip when he brought Kanda Bongo man to Harare, and as it were, officially introduced rhumba and kwasa kwasa dance to Zimbabwe. Phillip scored yet another sensational first when he brought Michael Jackson, the late King of Pop, to Zimbabwe and hosted him.
From a very tender age, Phillip always believed in outsmarting others to make money. The family survived on selling farm produce in Chegutu, and as a small boy, they had to be at the market early in the morning to offload farm produce from the buses – the first one to get up the bus selected the best produce.
Phillip thought of ways to outsmart the competition, believed, visualised and acted accordingly. He made arrangements with the bus driver that every day he would intercept the bus as it approaches Chegutu; buy all the produce so that by the time the bus ranks, they will announce that all the produce belonged to the Chiyangwa family. They immediately became wholesalers.
Out of poor vendors, he created renowned vegetable wholesalers. Asked where he draws his inspiration from, Phillip referred to Jimmy Cliff’s song, “you can get it if you really want it”.
“Only if you really want it, and if you try and try again – he succeeded and so can you,” Phillip adds. This is in line with the Secret – you attract to you the predominant thoughts you are holding.
In 1978, as a teenager, Phillip moved to Bulawayo to take up a job as a junior clerk at a conglomerate. He had no money and no clues as to what he would do to get rich. But he was very clear on what he wanted – to get rich. That clarity of what he wanted becomes a command to the universe. Believing, according to the Secret, means knowing what you want and knowing it is going to happen, and when you feel good about it as Phillip feels good about being rich, that’s the receiving according to the Secret.
Carrying a mental picture and acting accordingly as Phillip did in the streets of Bulawayo and continues to do today, complete the creative process. According to the Secret, you have, or can be, or can become anything you want.
Today Phillip is not ashamed to declare that he is very rich because when you focus on the things that you want, the law of attraction gives you what you want.
After his short-lived stint in politics as Zanu PF’s chairman for Mashonaland West Province and then as Member of Parliament for Chinhoyi, before being wrongfully arrested for hiding vehicles of ENG bosses and thereafter for allegedly leaking state secrets, Phillip was asked why he had now gone quiet and why we were no longer hearing much from him.
His response was forthright, “These days I am no longer into politics – ndave kuita zvebuck.” (I am now focusing on making money). Phillip does not believe in sleeping – he says others will be making money while he sleeps. He is always thinking about making money and as a result, he is always creating money. According to the Secret, creation is always happening because you are always thinking – the law of attraction gives you whatever you will be thinking. The Secret says, “Like attracts like” and therefore your thoughts must be of the things you want. Phillip wants money, riches and affluence and he is always thinking about it.
Phillip has always had a penchant for affluence, and that is what he attracts. Having worked as a junior clerk in Bulawayo, he moved to Dunlop as a work study trainee in the Industrial Engineering Department, then joined Willowvale Motor Industry as an Administration Assistant then moved on to Van Leer (Zim) now Grief as a management trainee.
He created Native Investments Africa Group in 1983, and over the years through the creative process has created and attracted to his group various companies, including Pinnacle Property Holdings (PPH). In PPH where Phillip claims “we innovate, the rest imitate”, he has taken the creative process to dizzy heights by out-of-this-world artist impressions of the various hotels, architectural design houses and industrial parks he wants to develop across the country.
Slowly, these structures are unfolding because according to the Secret when you visualise, you materialise. When you visualise or conceptualise, that feeling or inner seeing will be an open door through which the power of the universe will begin to express itself.
The Sunday Mail described the completed Aristotle Crowhill Boutique Hotel as ‘sheer opulence’ – one could almost define it as a ‘state of mind’. (Sunday Mail Business, October 11-17, 2009). Indeed that is what it is – a state of Phillip’s mind! Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. (Einstein 1879- 1983).
Labels: ENTREPRENEURS, PHILLIP CHIYANGWA
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Chiyangwa vows MDC will never rule, donates US$200K to Zanu-PF
By: MP-TZG reporters
Posted: Tuesday, November 9, 2010 9:19 pm
BUSINESSMAN Phillip Chiyangwa, last Saturday donated US$100,000 towards the successful hosting of the 11th Zanu-PF People's Conference scheduled for December 15 to 18 in Mutare. The former Chinhoyi legislator made the donation during a fundraising function organised by the provincial chairperson of the conference fundraising committee, Isau Mupfumi.
Manicaland was expected to raise $150,000 towards the December conference and Chiyangwa's donation helped the province to surpass the target by $15,000 after a total of $165,000 was raised.
Mupfumi also chipped in with $20,000 while Migdale Investment pledged $5,000.
Speaking at the occasion, Chiyangwa, said the Zanu-PF's conference should be a resounding success and should send a clear message to all the country's enemies that Zanu-PF was prepared to face its opponents in any elections.
"Next year's elections are just like the landmark 1980 elections. They will be decisive and some of us want to ensure that the enemy is defeated once and for all.
"There is not going to be a compromise because the time has come to tell Zimbabwe's enemies that Zanu-PF is ready to reclaim its status as the people's choice party.
"I have assets with a value of about $200 million and if it means selling everything to ensure that MDC does not get into power, let it be.
"Zanu-PF brought us independence and it is the independent Zimbabwe where we made our money and no-one should reverse these gains," said Chiyangwa.
He said President Mugabe should be allowed to continue spearheading black empowerment and the electorate should overwhelmingly vote for him.
"We have a selfless leader in President Mugabe. He should be the life President of this country. There is a mistaken belief that MDC will do well in urban areas, but I am even prepared to stand as a candidate in any constituency in an urban set-up and see whether I can not make it.
"It happened in the past when I won the Chinhoyi seat and this will also happen again next year," he said.
The businessman urged Zanu-PF supporters to refrain from violence.
"We only want to fight through the ballot box and nothing else. We have been too nice to sellouts and this is the time to show them the exit door.
"People were promised change by the MDC, but where is the change? They are just good at talking and nothing else.
"The MDC-T ministers in the inclusive Government are trying very hard to frustrate the gains of the liberation struggle and we know their game and we have opened our eyes now," he said.
Labels: MDC, PHILLIP CHIYANGWA, ZANU-PF
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Harare Mayor, councillors charged over Chiyangwa report
by Lebo Nkatazo
21/04/2010 00:00:00
PROSECUTORS charged eight Harare councillors and mayor with “criminal defamation” on Tuesday over allegations of corrupt land deals made against property magnate Phillip Chiyangwa, and contained in a confidential council report leaked to the media in March.
Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda and the eight councillors from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party appeared before a Harare magistrate but immediately applied for a discharge, arguing that the alleged crime of “criminal defamation” was committed by the two media organisations who published the stories.
Prosecuting, Chris Mutangadura of the Attorney General’s Office, accused Masunda, 58, of “acting in common purpose” with councillors Warship Dumba, 42, Paula Macharangwanda, 44, Panganayi Charumbira, 40, Herbert Gomba, 34, Job Mbadzi, 40, Musa Macheza, 36, Casper Takura, 42 and Thomas Muzuva to cause the publication of a council report into the city's land transactions between October 2004 and December 2009 before it was tabled before a full council for debate and possible adoption.
Mutangadura says because the contents of the 54-page report compiled by a Special Investigations Committee made up of the eight councillors had not yet been fully debated, its conclusions were therefore untested and are in fact “false in the material particulars”.
The prosecutor told Harare magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti: “The assertions made by accused persons are that Chiyangwa was an unscrupulous businessperson who has abused the City of Harare’s internal procedures in collusion with corrupt city officials.
“The State further alleges that there was a sting in the entire report and a wrongful perception was created that the entire property portfolio under Mr Chiyangwa’s companies of 500 hectares was the city’s land, fraudulently and corruptly acquired by him.
“They alleged that the complainant was a fraudster, a scam artist or is corrupt, a dishonest businessman, a land thief, a scandalous businessperson and shady.
“There was other abusive language in the report, which is conclusive that the complainant is untrustworthy and dishonest.”
Chiyangwa has strongly protested at the conclusions and made a complaint against the Harare City Council, leading to the criminal charges against the councillors.
At the centre of the alleged corruption is a land swap deal between the council and Chiyangwa’s company, Pinnacle Property Holdings, which developed complications in November 2007.
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The Harare City Council approached Pinnacle with a proposal to take over a portion of Stand 389 Derbyshire measuring 25,83 hectares for industrial development, in return for an industrial land equivalent on a 10,23 hectare stand in the Gunhill area.
Pinnacle accepted the council offer and duly transferred ownership of Stand 389 to the city. However, the city of Harare allegedly went back on the deal, stating that the Gunhill property had, by virtue of a ministerial directive, been earmarked for a national project that was underway.
Pinnacle’s lawyers pressed the city for specific performance, claiming breach of contract.
In response, the council substituted the piece of land in Gunhill with other stands dotted around Harare measuring 17,13 hectares.
Pinnacle accepted this arrangement, approved by the then town clerk Nomutsa Chideya, now late.
Prosecutor Mutangadura says contrary to the conclusions of the councillors in their report which was leaked to The Standard and Sunday Times newspapers, there was nothing irregular in the transaction, and at no time had Chiyangwa or his company acted dishonestly.
The case continues with the magistrate expected to rule on the defence lawyers’ application for a discharge.
Labels: HARARE CITY COUNCIL, MDC CORRUPTION, PHILLIP CHIYANGWA, PROPAGANDA
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Plan to seize Chiyangwa farms
by
25/03/2010 00:00:00
THE government has announced plans to seize three farms owned by businessman Phillip Chiyangwa. Lands and Resettlement Minister Herbert Murerwa, in a government gazette, said Chiyangwa can claim compensation for the annexed land.
The three properties measuring a total of 1386 hectares, located on the outskirts of Harare, will be compulsorily acquired for “urban development”, according to the notice.
Chiyangwa owns more than a dozen businesses, and the three properties are all registered under different companies. The 193-hectare Nyarungu is registered to Jetmaster, Stoneridge (587ha) to his property development firm, Pinnacle Holdings, and Odar Farm (606ha) is listed as owned by the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association.
Chiyangwa said Thursday that the acquisition had been amicable, and he would not be mounting a challenge.
"There is no sinister motive,” said the colourful businessman and former MP. “We are discussing compensation with government. There is nobody who can have his urban land taken away without being compensated. So everything is in order, I am going to be compensated."
The property tycoon, through his companies, is one of the biggest peri-urban land owners.
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Chiyangwa, Harare in land row
Business Reporter
HARARE businessman Mr Phillip Chiyangwa has accused Harare City Council of being a "bad debtor", saying it still owes him nine hectares of land he gave them in a swap deal in 2007. Mr Chiyangwa is also angry that council is trying to stop him from developing a piece of land in Borrowdale, which he says is an approved 2010 tourism project.
He was reacting to reports that council has directed that he should not be allowed to acquire more land and that his companies should be investigated over the land it has. Mr Chiyangwa says he entered into a deal with Harare City Council to swap land in December 2007.
He then proceeded to give council industrial land and they gave him open spaces.
Now he is trying to develop some of those open spaces and has duly applied to council for permission to do so.
He claims they gave him this land after being satisfied that he had delivered to them the land they required.
He says he has a Deed of Transfer entered into by his lawyers and the city council, in which council agreed to transfer land to him, in exchange for the land he had given them.
Harare City Council has continued to request land from him. As recently as January 16 this year council was still asking him for 40 hectares.
Town Clerk Mr Tendai Mahachi wrote to Pinnacle Holdings on January 16 2009 saying council had run out of land and was proposing to get more land from Mr Chiyangwa.
The letter reads: "Please be advised that the city has currently run out of industrial land to expand the City’s Industrial Land Bank and meet the increasing demand for industrial land from prospective local and foreign investors.
"To address this position, the city has embarked on an extensive exercise involving the identification and acquisition of land in the hands of private owners in the southern areas.
"Accordingly, the city intends to acquire forty (40) hectares of the industrial land along Masvingo Road created on Ordar Farm, which you own, vide Plan Number HOPU15 in batches of ten (10) hectares at a time by way of land exchanges or on such other mutually agreed terms."
Mr Chiyangwa says he is surprised that the council under Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda now appears to be fighting him when he had swapped land with them in a genuine business deal.
"All these are land swap deals," he said. "I have received 17,13 hectares in bits and pieces from the city council after I had given them over 25 hectares. I handed over to them land designed for industrial use immediately.
"They gave me public spaces but they are now not willing to assist me to change use of that land. They are now beginning to dishonour the agreements.
"They are clearly indebted to me. There are legal documents to prove that. They took land in 2007 and now they should be merely paying back. I thought they were a good debtor and I could give them land and then draw it later."
Recently council’s Environment and Management Committee presented an adverse report to a full council meeting on Mr Chiyangwa’s land development.
The committee expressed concern that council had issued "so many stands to Chiyangwa" and recommended a suspension of further land sales to the businessman.
But Mr Chiyangwa shot back: "I did not buy too much land. They took too much land from me and I am merely taking what is mine."
Harare City Council has, however, acknowledged that it owes Mr Chiyangwa land.
On January 21 2009 the town clerk wrote to Mr Chiyangwa’s lawyers, Kantor & Immerman, informing them that they had "identified and verified" the properties that the city would avail to Mr Chiyangwa, which totalled 17,13ha.
"We will now proceed to obtain council consent on these agreed proposals. The land that has been agreed has title and is transferable upon all council procedures being completed," wrote the town clerk.
The land was identified as Subdivision A of Stand 19675S.T.L (6,19ha); Stand 3789 S.T.L. (0,9945ha); Remainder. of Delmardeph G/Lorne (0,5012ha); Ballatyne Park (7,35ha) Remainder. of Block C of Hatfield (2,1ha).
On May 22 2009 council through the town clerk signed a Deed of Transfer in favour of Kilima Investments (Private) Limited, Mr Chiyangwa’s company, involving several pieces of land.
But in the latest twist to the council’s dealings with Mr Chiyangwa, council is now trying to stop him from developing a tourism facility on part of the swapped land in Borrowdale.
But Mr Chiyangwa insists the Borrowdale Road project is unstoppable. "It’s a 2010 project. I have a tourism operator’s licence for it."
He was referring to a Tourism Operators Licence issued to him by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority.
Mr Chiyangwa said Mayor Masunda should not be commenting on these deals since he sits on the board of directors of Old Mutual and that of Sisk, two companies that are Mr Chiyangwa’s competitors.
He said this might lead him to conclude the mayor is frustrating him in order to promote Old Mutual.
But Mr Masunda has said though he sits on the board of Old Mutual he would always recuse himself from any cases involving companies that he has interest in.
Old Mutual has been previously involved in a dispute with Mr Chiyangwa over the development of some land in Harare.
Mr Masunda told a local weekly that he is acting in response to public outcry over property developments being carried out by Mr Chiyangwa.
He said he had received several complaints from residents of Borrowdale and Ballantyne Park concerning Mr Chiyangwa’s land developments, which they alleged flouted environmental laws. Mr Chiyangwa had applied to council asking for change of use permission to turn open space and recreational space to a multi-purpose park.
The Director of Urban Planning Services recently told council that Kilma Investments was carrying out illegal developments in Borrowdale and that he had served Mr Chiyangwa’s company with an enforcement order and a prohibition order stopping him from further developing the land in Borrowdale.
Council then resolved that the town clerk submits a report detailing the chronological order of events on the preparation to sell pieces of land and town planning processes including the allocation done at the Borrowdale stand.
They also resolved that the Director of Urban Planning Services submits a report on all land sold to Mr Chiyangwa and companies associated with him.
It also recommended that council does not accede to the proposed change of use of the land and that council suspends any sale of land to Mr Chiyangwa and companies associated with him.
Mr Masunda said the recommendation of the committee had the effect of freezing whatever Mr Chiyangwa was doing at the Borrowdale property.
Labels: HARARE CITY COUNCIL, PHILLIP CHIYANGWA
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Harare investigates Chiyangwa land deals
by
19/12/2009 00:00:00
THE Harare City Council says it is launching an investigation to see if any rules were broken by property magnate Phillip Chiyangwa in his acquisition of huge tracts of land around the capital.
Councillors claim Chiyangwa’s acquisition of land in the peri-urban farms around the city is SUSPICIOUS. A recent full council meeting set up a committee to look into Chiyangwa’s company, Pinnacle Holdings, which owns thousands of housing stands and developed properties in and around Harare.
Ward 19 councillor Munyaradzi Kufahakutizwi said it was “very unfair for an individual to own huge tracts of land at the expense of ordinary residents”.
He added: “It would not be surprising to find that the businessman might have got the land for peanuts, and he is now selling the stands at exorbitant prices.
“You see the adverts everywhere and where is that money going and is it of any help to the council?”
Mabvuku councillor Casper Takura said: “Council land must be a prerogative of the poor so whatever deals that are being undertaken to enrich one man must be stopped.”
The council recently ordered Chiyangwa to stop developing a recreational park in Borrowdale.
Psychology Chiwanga, the director of urban planning, told the council that the “illegal developments” were being undertaken by Kilma Investments, a company owned by Chiyangwa.
(additional reporting RadioVOP)
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