The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
A SOUTH African based businessman is on a warpath against the Lupane Local Board (LLB), amid allegations that a stand he purchased was later resold without his knowledge.
Mr Patrick Dlamini claims that on a recent visit to Zimbabwe, he discovered that the property he bought in 2014 had not only been resold without his knowledge, but had since been developed up to window level by another prospective home owner.
According to documents shown to Sunday News, although Mr Dlamini bought stand number 856 in Lupane Township from one Ms Tatshi Dube in 2014, it had since been sold to another buyer, Ms Thembelani Ngwenya, with approval of the local authority.
Mr Dlamini said when he took his grievances to the LLB, he was told that the stand he had purchased was not Number 856 but Number 854. His attempts to retrieve the documents that he left when he made the purchase were fruitless, as employees at the local board allegedly said they could not find them.
However, Mr Dlamini’s legal representatives, Dube-Tachiona and Tsvangirai, kept copies of those same documents, which they also showed to Sunday News. In a letter dated 26 April, the law firm wrote to the local board for more information regarding to the sale history of the stand.
“We refer to the above and confirm that we represent Vusani Patrick Dlamini, kindly note our interest thereof. We have been advised by our client that Thatshi Dube sold Stand 856 Lupane Township to another buyer after having sold the same stand to our client Vusani Patrick Dlamini on 8 December as per the attached agreement of sale. Kindly note that our client is the first buyer to purchase Stand 856 Lupane Township from Thatshi Dube. We therefore request the original agreement of sale filed at your offices between Thatshi Dube and the second buyer,” the letter read.
Contacted for comment LLB Acting Secretary Mr Freedom Sibanda said he could not comment on the story at the time of being questioned.
“You will get our comments next time you publish again. I may not meet your time line,” he said.
