Showground tenants, management clash
SMALL and Medium Enterprises players in Mutare on Wednesday staged a peaceful demonstration against the management of Manicaland Agricultural Show Society for trying to elbow one tenant in support of a Harare businessman.
The placard waving demonstrators temporarily brought business to a halt at the showground demanding an audience with the society’s management over their decision to sublet the once popular East-Point bar popularly known as PamaRasta to the proprietor of Club 263, Mr Biggie Chinoperekwi. It took the intervention of the police to bring order as the demonstrators accused the Show Society administrator, Mr Edmund Nenguke for corruptly facilitating the leasing of the joint to Mr Chinoperekwi.
Mr Nenguke could not give satisfactory explanations on what transpired, referring all questions to Manicaland Agricultural Show Society board.
East-Point Bar was owned by Mr Samson Manyati who converted a dumping site in 2015 into a popular joint.
The joint was closed for renovations in May this year after the Ministry of Health and Child Care ordered them to have proper ablution facilities.
It is alleged that while the club was being renovated, Mr Chinoperekwi’s team showed with papers from the show society stating that they were the new tenants with effect from November 7, 2017.
One of demonstrators said: “We know who is behind this move. That woman was given $650 bribe by Club 263 owners so that they would run PamaRasta. That place is a crowd puller and they want to capitalise on that. We will fight to the end.”
Mr Manyati said: “That place was a dump site when it was allocated to me. I sold my two cars in 2015 and constructed all the structures that are there. The bar only operated for a few months and the Ministry of Health and Child Care ordered me to close it and renovate the toilets.
“In the process of putting things in order, the show society ordered me to stop everything until they renew my lease which expired early this month. To my surprise, I saw people from Club 263 coming in with new lockers, claiming that they were the new tenants. They also claimed that they had a licence to run East-Point Bar.
“I am yet to renew my lease just like any other tenant here, but how can my place be allocated to someone else without my knowledge? I have not recovered the money that I used to build this place and how will show society compensate me?” fumed Mr Manyati.