By Cletus Mushanawani
PROMINENT Mutare businessmen clashed in the city last Saturday in what insiders said was a feud stemming from extortion allegations in which one of them allegedly demanded that his colleague should pay ‘‘protection fees’’ to a cabinet minister and two service chiefs.
Police in Mutare confirmed that they were investigating a case in which Tinotenda Machakaire is alleged to have assaulted Muzafar Khan and his brother, Mudassar Khan. The Khan brothers have a licence to cut and polish diamonds.
Both parties confirmed the incident, but Machakaire said the Khan brothers were trying to fix him for helping his colleague who was ‘‘their runner’’ from claiming what is due to him.
The Khan brothers insisted that Machakaire and his colleagues had extorted $15 000 which he said was supposed to be paid to the Harare-based senior Government officials.
Deputy Manicaland provincial police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Luxson Chananda said both parties had earlier on met at the office of a Mutare lawyer where the issue of money was discussed with the complainant insisting that he should get back his ‘‘protection fee’’.
“The two parties later met in town while driving their vehicles and had an exchange of words, which degenerated into a fight when they stopped their vehicles. The Khan brothers said Machakaire attacked them resulting in them having bruises on the face and neck. The scuffle was stopped by one Sign Chekerai. Investigations are in progress,” he said.
Machakaire said he only intervened in the issue after he was approached by Charles Chave who wanted him to recover $60 000 he said was being owed by the Khan brothers.
“There is no way I could have used the names of senior Government officials to threaten them because I have no links with them. I was just helping Charlie, but everything is being twisted because they do not want to honour their part of the bargain. My hands are clean, but these brothers are hiring monyas to intimidate me and my colleagues.
The monyas are also threatening to deal with my colleague, Occasion Chimwendo.
“At one time they agreed to pay Charlie $25 000 and why would they want to pay him if there was no business relations with him? A lot of cover-up is being done because we know some people who received cars from them. They should come out clean than to tarnish my image,” said Machakaire.
Chave also insisted that the Khan brothers owed him $60 000 which was 5 percent of the total amount of a business transaction he had facilitated for them.
‘‘What I want is my dues. They are trying to fleece me through fabricating stories,” he said.
However, a sworn affidavit by Alby Marima of Number 8, Keates Avenue, Fairbridge Park in Mutare, which this paper has in its possession, detailed how Chave schemed with an unmanned law enforcement agent to fleece money from the Khan brothers.
“I recall that at one point there was an issue that was raised by Charles Chave in consultation with a CIO guy known to me. They planned or schemed to fleece our employer of some money.
“The scheme involved Mr Charles Chave passing on false information to our employer that he was under serious investigations by the authorities for illegally dealing in precious stones or diamonds. The false information was to be said to be in the possession of the CIO in a dossier or a report that he had seen at his workplace.
“The CIO was to confirm the existence of the report and that the investigations were to commence soon and that once they commence their diamond cutting and polishing licence was going to be revoked by the authorities.
“In order to save their licence, the complainant was going to be asked to pay some money to some senior Government officials so that the investigations would be stopped,” wrote Marima.
He went further to write: “I also recall that there was a time when another plan or scheme was cooked up to fleece the complainant of his money. This time, it was Charles Chave and one Tino Mukanya.
“It was planned that information was to be passed by Charles to complainant that his life and that of his family was in danger. It was suggested that a make-believe story that black diamond dealers in Mutare were plotting against complainant to bring him down and his family.
“Charles was to suggest that complainant and his family needed protection from ‘big gun’ or some senior Government officials if he was to have peace,” wrote Marima.
The Khan brothers are alleged to have paid out $15 000 and another $4 000 was meant to be a donation to Zanu-PF. Efforts to get a comment from Marima were fruitless at the time of going to press. Manica Post