EXTERNAL auditors exposed the alleged underhand dealings involving the sale of commonage stands belonging to Delatfin Civil Engineering by the company’s finance director Jacob Muyambo and two Harare car dealers, Amos Kagona and Saymore Mutakura, the head of Deltafin testified yesterday.
Testifying in the trial where the three are charged with fraud, Delatfin Civil Engineering director Mr Felix Munyaradzi said he smelt a rat after Muyambo presented a report to him over the stands.
Mr Munyaradzi said Muyambo had claimed that all was in order before he invited in external auditors.
“I was briefed by the accountant and I had to hire external auditors. External auditors told me that there were some stolen stands and they had not been paid for,” he said.
Mr Munyaradzi then invited Mutakura to his offices to explain the findings of the external auditors and he visited the office four times, but their meetings yielded nothing, which prompted him to take the matter to the police.
Mr Munyaradzi told the court that it was not the first time that Muyambo had stolen from his company, as he was once arrested before he dropped the charges against him.
“I had a good working relationship with them. He once stole from me and I dropped the charges. “He (Muyambo) stole a house from me and changed ownership into his name. He later returned the property,” he said.
Muyambo, who was represented by lawyer Mrs Rekayi Maphosa denied the charges saying his arrest was as a result of Mr Munyaradzi, who wanted revenge for Muyambo testifying against him sometime in 2018.
Muyambo was State witness whose evidence was considered crucial in a prosecution of Mr Munyaradzi in 2018.
Muyambo told the court that he worked at Delatfin as a professional assistant to Mr Munyaradzi and he has no powers to supervise anyone, let alone give instructions. He denied knowing Kagona and Mutakura saying he was introduced to them by Mr Munyaradzi.
Kagona and Mutakura, who were represented by Mrs G Sithole, told the court that they were not privy to how stands were allocated at Delatfin and did not know what were called commonage stands.
“The Court will be told that Mr Munyaradzi agreed and authorized barter trade transactions to be entered with car dealers and other commodity suppliers who would exchange cars, cattle and other immovable properties among other things,” they said.
They told the court that they would barter trade the cars in exchange for residential stands, which they would sell for cash when trading with third parties.
Kagona and Mutakura claimed that the purchasers of the stands would conduct a due diligence with Delatfin in person or through their agencies.
“The Court will be told that on other occasions accused 2 and 3 would find clients for Delatfin who would become purchasers and accused 2 and 3 would be given residential stands as commission,” they claimed.
Kagona and Mutakura told the court that all the agreements of sale were signed by Mr Munyaradzi personally.
They are expected back in court on March 6.
Magistrate Stanford Mambanje presided while Mr Tafara Chirambira appeared for the State.