Vicious battle for control of private hospital

Health & Fitness
BY JENNIFER DUBE The battle for the control of the Trauma Centre Hospital took a new twist recently when a Harare magistrate granted an order handing the institution back to its founder Vivek Solanki.

Solanki was kicked out by his former partners in the African Medical Investments (AMI Plc) who were running the private hospital in Belgravia in July 2010.

On October 11, the magistrate’s court granted the relief sought by Solanki ordering the eviction of the “respondent and its officials and anyone claiming occupation through them” within seven days.

AMI’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa immediately filed a notice and grounds of appeal challenging the ruling at the High Court.

Solanki, a medical doctor, claims that he built the hospital and has run it over the last 16 years.

He claims his partners tried to “fraudulently appropriate the business and assets using intimidation, violence and contacts in the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) and CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation)”.

Solanki on Thursday told Standardhealth his former partners wanted to illegally dispossess him of the business after they agreed to enter a joint venture in 2009.

“These are British and American citizens, people whose countries have put us under sanctions allegedly for violating human rights, coming into our country and bullying us with an attempt to dispossess us of what rightfully belongs to us,” he said.

“They are trying to defraud me, an indigenous investor, of my business which I worked very hard to build over the past 16 years. Some of the people are my former patients who approached me with a request to form a joint venture which I agreed to but with clear provisions that this was just a management agreement which did not strip me of my rights and title to my Zimbabwean business.”

Solanki has filed three related applications at the High Court seeking eviction of the respondents with one being dismissed and two still pending.In their heads of argument at the magistrates’ court, the respondents said the premises of the hospital in dispute were in fact owned by a company known as Streamsleigh Investments.

“Applicant has not alleged any contractual relationship between it and Streamleigh, which would give it legal title to be in occupation of the premises,” AMI said.

AMI said they believed their appeal had “excellent prospects of appeal on virtually every ground raised”.

It added “Streamsleigh, the owner/occupier of the premises and other third parties such as Streamsleigh’s employees and patients, would suffer serious irreparable harm if execution pending appeal were allowed.”

The Trauma Centre Hospital deals with trauma medical emergencies, vaccination services and local ambulance support.