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Harare Bureau
A prosecutor believes flamboyant businessman Energy Mutodi, accused of fleecing desperate home seekers of more than $500,000, has a case to answer. Prosecutor Michael Reza told the court that Mutodi and his co-accused, Boniface Chikono, should be put to their defence. This follows an application of discharge at the close of the state’s case by the pair.

In his response, Reza said Mutodi and Chikono had no right or authority to allocate the residential stands as they had not paid for the land earmarked for the housing project.

“The provisions of the contracts that the accused entered into with the different land owners are very simple and straightforward and unambiguous.

“The accused were to pay for the land in instalments, develop the land and allocate the stands to their beneficiaries, but only after they had paid for the land in full,” he said.

Reza said Mutodi deviated from the agreed deal and continued receiving deductions from the complainants though the project was clearly in disarray.

“As a logical consequence, the owners of the land, unpaid for and undeveloped, cancelled the agreements. The accused were advised of the cancellation but did not bother to advise the complainants, pretending as if everything was in order when clearly it was not.

“There’s nothing civil about the matter. The accused had no capacity to honour the fraudulent project.

“The matter would have qualified to be civil if the accused owned land that they purported to allocate. They didn’t own it,” said Reza.

He said Mutodi’s modus operandi was to hoodwink as many people as possible into believing that he was a genuine property developer.

Reza insisted that Mutodi, his company NHDT and Chikono, be put to their defence because he had proved a prima facie case against them.

Harare regional magistrate Hoseah Mujaya will make a ruling on Wednesday.

It is alleged that Mutodi and Chikono embezzled funds meant for several housing projects earmarked for development across the country.