Selous Hotel management allegedly conned by local businessman: Nehanda Citizen Reports

We have received this email from a reader who alleges that the Selous Hotel management was conned by a local businessman Moses Chingwena and that through corrupt means the case may die a natural death.

In the year 2008, Selous Hotel cnr 6th and Selous Ave went under Provisional Liquidation as Robert Root Real Estates claimed that the building that housed the Hotel had been sold.

The Management challenged the liquidation and in June 2008,they received a letter from Mrs T. Grimmel the Prov Liquidator appointed by the High Court of Zim informing them that the building was no longer for sale hence the liquidation had been shelved.

The management then started negotiating with its directors to have an allocation of shares but by then the economy was not performing well.

The directors then agreed that the management should continue to run the business for two years, and that Mrs T Grimmel the Prov Liquidator will be advising them on any matter pertaining to the Hotel.

Sometime in the year 2009 when the economy had improved, the management started to negotiate with the directors so that they be allocated some shares and the directors agreed.

But in Dec 2009,they were then informed by the Prov Liquidator Mrs T Grimmel that the building had been sold to one Mr M Chingwena and that the issue of shares had been shelved. After some meetings the Prov Liquidator then informed the management team to accept any offer from Mr M Chingwena as the building had been sold to him.

Sometime in Feb 2010,the Prov Liquidator brought some various amounts which she alleged that it was for the terminal benefits and all the workers took the money, thinking that the business had been sold to Mr M Chingwena.That very month the workers were
made to sign new contracts under duress by Mr M Chingwena who was using a trade name WOOLWORK Investments.

The hotel continued to operate normally but all the funds were now being banked into a Croco Motors Bank A/c.

But in May 2010, the Prov Liquidator sent the management team some emails to the effect that the company was not sold to Mr M Chingwena, hence the funds generated from the Hotel business were not supposed to be deposited into Mr M Chingwena’s Croco Motors a/c.

In June 2010,Mr M Chingwena brought new security guards with specific instructions that the Prov Liquidator and the directors were not supposed to enter into the company premises.

On the 6th of Aug 2010, Mr J Chitau who was the general manager of Selous Hotel was phoned by one of the directors namely Andrew Deysel who told him that the funds were to be banked in the existing company account.

After that Mr Chingwena phoned the general manager enquiring as to why he was defying his instructions and he explained to Mr Chingwena that the directors had told him that the company had not been sold to him.

Mr M Chingwena then learnt that the management was about to be allocated shares by the directors under the lndigenisation Act of Zim,he then chased the 5 managers from the hotel namely Mr John Chitau, Miss Chiedza Muchairi, Mrs Patricia Tafura, Mrs Headwick Honde and Mr Ronald Chirombo.

The management informed the directors of the latest events but they denied ever selling the company to Mr M Chingwena. The directors then made a police report,because Mr Chingwena had committed a clear act of theft. At the Harare Central Police the matter was referred to the CID Serious Frauds Section case number being C.R 423/08/2010 and lnspector Masara is the one who was handed the matter.

The directors made it clear that they never sold the hotel or its property to Mr Chingwena and that they were in the process of transferring 51% of the shares to their management team who had kept the business going. Mrs T Grimmel the Prov Liquidator also gave a statement that Mr M Chingwena never bought the Hotel.

But inspite all of that lnspector Masara just set on the case and it never went for procecution. At the same time the directors made an urgent application at the High Court and the case was heard by Justice Muchena. Before the judge Mr Chingwena said he bought the hotel but the deal was not reduced to writing.

In his judgement Justice Muchena said the case was not urgent hence,it should go for main trail but all the hotel funds should be kept in a Trust account. Meaning that Mr Chingwena would continue to occupy the hotel despite the fact that he didnt hold a single illegal document to prove his ownership.

Unfortunate for the management all their funds were now locked in the Croco Bank acc so they didn’t have money to pay Lawyers, so the matter never went for main trail. A report was also made to the Z.T.A who acknowledged that acc to their books the Hotel was still registered under P.H Hotels and what Mr Chingwena had done was illegal.

But with all the documentation provided the Z.T.A acted in a very corrupt manner because they left Mr Chingwena operating the hotel up to this day,which in itself is very unlawful. Our question is should ordinary Zimbabweans be left to suffer @ the hands of these greedy businessmen, because they don’t have e financial muscle to fight them??

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