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Mashudu Netsianda Senior Court Reporter
A BULAWAYO man who was allegedly defrauded of $15,000 by lawyers from Cheda and Partners in a botched house deal is locked in a legal battle with the former house owner after he was served an eviction order. Cephas Mwapaura, who bought the house through the now defunct law firm, yesterday filed an urgent chamber application for stay of execution after he was ordered to vacate the property.

In court papers before the Bulawayo High Court, Mwapaura is the applicant while the former house owner, Nkosinathi Khumalo, and the Bulawayo City Council were cited as the respondents.

Mwapaura, through his lawyer Bruce Masamvu, is challenging his eviction from the Emakhandeni house over an outstanding amount of $15,000 which Cheda and Partners lawyers allegedly pocketed.

Khumalo sold the house to Mwapaura through Cheda and Partners for $23,000. According to the court papers, Khumalo’s lawyers, Cheda and Partners only paid him $8,000. Khumalo recently obtained a default judgment to evict Mwapaura from the house.

Mwapaura, in his founding affidavit, said he did not owe Khumalo after paying $23,000 through Cheda and Partners.

“I transferred the full purchase price of $23,000 to Khumalo’s erstwhile legal practitioners Cheda and Partners. The property was then transferred into my name and the then executor dative signed all the relevant documents,” said Mwapaura.

“Sometime in August 2015, Khumalo started showing up at my house demanding that I surrender back the property to him, saying he was not fully paid by Cheda and Partners. He indicated that he was only paid $8,000 by Cheda and Partners.”

Mwapaura wants the court to bar Khumalo from executing a court order dated November 26 and to remain in custody of the house.

According to the eviction order by Justice Maxwell Takuva, Mwapaura and all those claiming occupation of the house through him were given five days to vacate failure of which they would be ejected by the Sheriff of the High Court.

Mwapaura accused Khumalo of misleading the court to obtain the order.

“Khumalo introduced me to his lawyers and the documents clearly show that I transferred the full amount on March 4, 2015, and the respondent is fully aware of that but went on to mislead the court. I therefore seek the immediate intervention of this honourable court to stop the execution of the November 26 court order,” argued Mwapaura.

He said Khumalo sought to prejudice him for failing to get his money from Cheda and Partners.

“Clearly, that shouldn’t be my concern, he should pursue his lawyers for his money not me,” said Mwapaura.

In February, Mlamuli Ncube, a former senior partner at Cheda and Partners was sued for $46,500 by a local businessman after he also was allegedly implicated in another failed house deal.

The scam also involved a bogus estate agent, Charles Mawire, who sold the property for $60,000 and allegedly issued fake title deeds to the businessman. Mawire has a pending court case for allegedly operating as a lawyer.

Cheda and Partners ceased operating on May 15. The law firm had been under curatorship since February 5 after the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ), the legal profession regulator, detected abuse of trust funds running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Ncube and another senior partner, Sindiso Mazibisa, then surrendered their practising certificates.

They were later suspended by the LSZ pending fraud investigations, one of which was the alleged theft of $335,000 by Mazibisa which was held in trust.

The third senior partner, Nqobizitha Ndlovu, was later suspended by LSZ for interfering with the curator’s duties.

Cheda and Partners was a top rate law firm in Zimbabwe with its head office in Bulawayo and branches in Gwanda and Victoria Falls.

The LSZ is threatened with claims amounting to $3 million emanating from theft, fraud, forgery and dishonest practices from its members, with Cheda and Partners having the highest claims of $1 million.