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The town’s acting town secretary, Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza, confirmed in an interview yesterday the reversal of the land deal.

She said the deal signed between the town council and Pinnacle Holdings director Mr Phillip Chiyangwa in June had been canceled after the local authority decided to revisit the terms of the agreement.
“As the town council, we were not satisfied with the money offered by Mr Chiyangwa. The conditions of the agreement were unacceptable as the money realised from the sale of land could not sustain the town council. The money paid by Mr Chiyangwa for the land was far below the actual price that the council was selling its commercial stands,” said Ms Gwatipedza.
Mr Chiyangwa bought 200 hectares of land in Redcliff Town at US$658 000 last year.

A council official told this paper that the local authority, which was desperate for cash to pay salaries for its disgruntled workers, charged Mr Chiyangwa US$30 cents per two square metres for the land yet the actual price was US$70 cents.

Ms Gwatipedza admitted that the council used Mr Chiyangwa’s money to pay its workers’ outstanding salaries.
She said they were going to re-engage Mr Chiyangwa so that they renegotiate the deal as the council could fail to payback the money.

“We will contact Mr Chiyangwa so that we revisit the terms of the agreement and probably alter some of terms of the deal, particularly the price of the land,” said Ms Gwatipedza.
Ms Gwatipedza said the council, which used all the money received from Pinnacle Holdings to pay its employees’ outstanding salaries, still owed workers money.

“The town council is bankrupt due to the closure of Ziscosteel which was the nucleus of the town and this has negatively affected the operations of the council,” said Ms Gwatipedza.
Contacted for comment, Mr Philip Chiyangwa castigated the Redcliff Town Council for their unprofessional conduct in the deal.

“They first advertised that they were selling land. After I bought the land, they failed to give us title deeds. The council has been unprofessional,” said Mr Chiyangwa.
“The council has acted fraudulently. They are real criminals or is it that they simply lack an understanding of how businesses are run and thus do not appreciate the magnitude of the damage they cause to investors through such behaviour? They must avoid embarrassing themselves. When you enter into a business deal with someone do not look at that person’s status, just do your normal business transaction. This should not be about Phillip Chiyangwa,” said Mr Chiyangwa.

Mr Chiyangwa said the Redcliff Municipality has an obligation to respect the contract he entered with them.