Law firm employee arrested

AN employee of a Harare law firm accused of lying under oath in a property dispute between businessman Mr Tendai Mashamhanda and a local company, who was wanted by police for questioning, has been arrested and will appear in court soon.

In a long running civil dispute over a Highlands property, Mr Mashamhanda wants Mr Constantine Chaza, a legal clerk at Mr Tendai Biti’s law firm, prosecuted for allegedly spreading misinformation about the property.

Harare provincial police spokesperson Inspector Tendai Mwanza confirmed Chaza’s arrest yesterday saying he was detained at Harare Central Police Station where he was assisting police with investigations.

Mr Mashamhanda claims that in February 2019, Chaza submitted an affidavit in an urgent chamber application which had errors which Mr Mashamhanda sees as deliberate. Mr Chaza was a legal clerk for Mr Tendai Biti and the law firm was acting for Mr Elliot Rogers.

Mr Mashamhanda has described as false, the statements that the transfer of 41 Ridgeway North in Harare to Mr Mashamhanda was a deed donation, that no capital gains tax was paid, that Mr Puwayi Chiutsi and not Jacqueline Sande the conveyancer in the matter, personally attended to the transfer of the property, and that the transfer was done in five minutes when the processes ran from January 25 to February 8, 2019.

The involvement of the police came after last Wednesday when the High Court granted a default judgment on a recent court application in which Mr Chiutsi had been dismissed by the same court after he wanted it to set aside a decision by the Sheriff to confirm the sale of the house in Highlands, Harare in favour to his former client Mr Elliot Rodgers after it had been attached.

According to the initial judgment by the then High Court Judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi, Mr Chiutsi had sought an order to set aside the confirmation of the sale in pursuance of a court judgment granted on November 4, 2014 in favour of Mr Rodgers following a wrangle over US$70 000 of trust money.