‘Land baron’ Mabamba nearly beaten up

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FIRED Zanu (PF) Chitungwiza councillor for Ward 25 and alleged land baron, Frederick Mabamba has been sucked in a house ownership wrangle in the town.

FIRED Zanu (PF) Chitungwiza councillor for Ward 25 and alleged land baron, Frederick Mabamba has been sucked in a house ownership wrangle in the town.

By Edgar Gweshe

He was mobbed and nearly beaten up last week by angry Zengeza residents who accused him of using unorthodox means to snatch a housing stand in the suburb.

The property belonged to the late Algina Biri whose children were evicted after her death in 2005.

Mabamba’s confrontation with the residents came after he visited the contested property to inspect renovation work currently taking place there.

He had brought building material with him, a development that led residents to suspect that he was behind plans to snatch the house from its former owner.

Angry residents reportedly demanded an explanation from Mabamba and started hurling insults at him before ordering him to leave. Mabamba reportedly left in a huff and was ordered to carry his building material with him.

“He was lucky that some elderly people restrained the youths who wanted to attack him. They blamed him for being insensitive to the plight of the poor residents,” said an eye witness.

Mabamba was fired by Local Government minister Ignatious Chombo last week, over allegations of corruptly acquiring vast tracts of land in the dormitory town and illegally allocating them to residents. He denied the allegations.

Contacted for comment, Mabamba refuted allegations that he had an interest in the house, saying he had merely been contracted to renovate the house by the owners.

“If you look at council papers, you will not find my name there so how can people claim that I have an interest in that property? I do not have any interest in that house and I only went there with the building material just because I was given a contract by the owner and I was only fulfilling that contract,” he said.

He however would not reveal the owners of the house who contracted him.

Biri’s son, Damuson Phiri alleges in papers filed with the Chitungwiza Magistrate Court that one Rudo Kodobola got ownership of the house after she fraudulently obtained a default judgement against his late mother.

“Kodobola applied for an order to compel transfer of ownership of Stand No. 654/34 Gokoro Road, Zengeza 1 against my deceased mother under the pretext that she bought the same from my late mother sometime in 2001,” reads Phiri’s application.

“The said Kodobola then served the above mentioned application on No. 327 Unit G Seke, Chitungwiza when my mother neither stayed there nor was the property in question situated there.

Furthermore, the said application was made in 2007 when my mother had died in 2005 hence naturally my late mother defaulted and a default judgement was entered against her on October 6 2007.” Kodobola is alleged to have sold the house to one Tarisai Mandizvidza sometime in 2008.

Phiri said in an interview that since Mandizvidza took over ownership of the house, her tenants have been occupying the place.

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