Biti In A Storm As Property Company Takes Legislator Head On

Harare East legislator Tendai Biti has come under fire for allegedly peddling false claims against West Properties Zimbabwe, a company owned by business mogul Kenneth Raydon Sharpe.

Through a statement released to the press Thursday, West Properties public relations manager Michael Chideme said the claims were false and inflammatory.

The issues raised by Biti reportedly emanated from the wrangle between Harare businessman George Katsimberis and Sharpe following the destruction of a showhouse worth about US$300 000 which Katsimberis had built at Pokugara Estates located in Harare’s leafy suburb of Borrowdale.

Chideme says the company denies Biti’s allegations that City of Harare corruptly awarded Sharpe’s Augur Investments vast tracts of land as payment for the construction of Robert Mugabe International airport road.

“In addition to having no basis in truth, these claims are also cruel and ill-intentioned.”

“For instance, Mr. Biti claimed that the City of Harare extended to Mr. Kenneth Raydon Sharpe in excess of 200,000 hectares of land. This was among several outrageous falsehoods cooked up to stir up negative public sentiment.

“The claim is preposterous hyperbole and should not have escaped editorial scrutiny. Harare is only 94,000 hectares, a fact which exposes the claim as a malicious lie concocted by a clumsy imagination.

“The actual land size in question is 270 hectares.

“Mr. Biti proceeded to accuse Mr. Sharpe of the largest land theft in Zimbabwe since the country’s independence from white settler rule, despite knowing that the accusation was false. The incendiary language had racial overtones and was intended to generate a negative public opinion of Mr. Sharpe. Regrettably, these remarks have been repeatedly published despite their obviously fictitious foundation,” he said.

Chideme further stated that the dispute arose after several contractual violations related to the city’s failure to fulfil its obligations in a timely and competent manner.

“These egregious failures are documented in court-accessible public records and are not contested by the City of Harare. Specifically, these failures involve the tendering of unzoned land unfit for the stated purpose of commercial development.

“This unzoned land was irresponsibly given as consideration in a commercial transaction which Augur entered into in good faith…This is a straightforward contractual dispute that has been litigated to its natural conclusion, having been settled by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe.

“Mr. Biti cannot purport to contest the findings and determinations of the High Court and Supreme Court, as expressed in HC 425/21 and SC 229/22, without providing specific objections to those rulings, which upheld our title to the Pomona property in question. The Supreme Court’s ruling against Mr. Biti’s clients was unequivocal,” he said.

Chideme claimed that the absence of a legal justification for his continued harassment of West Properties suggests that his only objective is to generate negative news coverage at the expense of their commercial interests.

He states that Biti was casting these aspersions to divert the public from his assault case where he allegedly attacked an executive from West Property, Tatiana Aleshina.

“This appears to be an effort to divert public attention away from his unacceptable behaviour toward our executive, Tatiana Aleshina, whom he verbally abused without provocation in November 2020 at the Harare Magistrates’ Court.

“Ms. Aleshina had attended court representing West Property in a case in which George Katsimberis had illegally built on the company’s land, having unlawfully secured permits from corrupt elements inside the local authority. That matter is still pending before the courts,” Chideme said.

“Mr. Biti wishes to divert public attention by feigning outrage over fictitious acts of corruption, despite knowing full well that the contractual matters he claims to be in dispute were settled by the Supreme Court and that he failed to challenge them in any meaningful way. All this is by design,” he said.

Chideme said Biti was cynically manipulating public opinion in a manner that betrays gross disrespect for the intelligence of the public and also had a mission to bait journalists with false facts.

“While his conduct is unusual for a man occupying the political position he enjoys in society, it is completely unheard of and thoroughly unbecoming of a learned legal practitioner.

Mr. Biti intends to muddy the waters by baiting journalists with sensational but false claims, knowing that they will be repeated without verification. It would be unfortunate if the media rewarded his contemptuous behaviour,” it reads. Nhau/Indaba