HARARE – A Hamilton Property Holdings Limited (Hamilton) employee Lloyd Hama was on Friday seized and questioned by the police – the second such action in a week – for daring to testify on behalf of his employer.
The development not only comes as Frank Buyanga’s company was on the defences against Irene Chiwara’s complaint over a $22 000 deal, but officers from the Criminal Investigation Department reportedly tried to get the man to alter his sworn statement and affidavit that his employer was involved in money lending.
While Hama was initially arrested at the High Court on Thursday, he was taken in for further questioning yesterday – yet he had been testifying in a civil trial normally held in a non-criminal matter.
With Buyanga’s companies fighting numerous battles for allegedly fleecing people of their assets, problems started when many hard-pressed Zimbabweans and companies approached Hamilton to mortgage their properties under interest-bearing and 12-month “buy-back” agreements, which they failed to honour.
And with many such as Chiwara failing to raise the initial capital laid to them, the flamboyant businessman triggered a clause in their contracts stipulating that the properties were considered fully transferable, thus triggering the court battles.
Although Buyanga has won some of the fights – leading to his December 2010 clearance on both criminal and commercial charges by the police – the 33 year-old businessman and his employees still finds themselves as subjects of interest by a section of the criminal justice system.
As it is, the South African-based businessman was placed on an Interpol red notice after clashing with a high-ranking Zimbabwean politician he had allegedly given $70 000 and his associates fear he will not get a fair trial should he return home.
However, Buyanga has hired top Israeli lawyer Nick Kaufman to fight the international arrest warrant and the defence team is banking on the “political circus around his legal troubles” to get the warrant overturned.
And as relations between the self-made millionaire, and authorities remain frosty, he recently told a local publication that some police and Attorney General’s office workers were “Mickey Mouse individuals seeking to get promotion at work”.
As things stand, it is not only Hama who has been hounded by the police for daring to stand by his employer, but Simon Charwe as well.
Meanwhile, the High Court civil trial has been postponed to Monday after the presiding judge said she had other commitments. Daily News
