Zimbabwe: Elbowed Out Farm Owner Drags Residents Association to Court Over Development of Leengate's Spitzkop Upmarket Stands

28 January 2025

Upmarket residential stands at Spitzkop Farm being sold by property developer, Leengate are under scrutiny after the farm owner stumbled upon adverts of her land being advertised without her knowledge.

Spitzkop farm owner, Diana Catherine Rodrigues has since approached the High Court seeking an order against Spitzkop Farm Residents Association which sold the land to Leengate.

Rodrigues said the association illegally obtained a court order declaring the farm as abandoned.

The order was granted by former judge Webster Chinamhora who resigned from the bench in 2023 ahead of a tribunal inquiry into his suitability to hold office following a litany of allegations against him.

He was under fire for delivering a judgement in a case he never heard.

In the present matter, Rodrigues told the High Court that she became aware of the order against her on August 1 2024 after she had engaged her lawyers to find out why Leengate was advertising and selling her land.

The 1st and 2nd Respondents (Spitzkop Farm Residents Association and Tinashe Mananzva) representing the association had approached the High Court via the chamber book for an order in terms of the Titles Registration and Derelict Lands Act.

"The said process was never served on me. As appears on the record attached above, the 1st and 2nd Respondents alleged that our whereabouts were unknown despite the fact that I was born and raised in Zimbabwe and have always resided in Zimbabwe," she said.

The record of proceedings also shows that the respondents advertised their provisional and final order in the Herald Newspaper relating to a different deed and not Rodrigues.

"However, in this digital world, I have not bought a single hard-copy newspaper for the last ten years.

"Further, the matter was filed and processed during the novel Covid 19 era in which most people chose to stay indoors both in compliance with WHO and Zimbabwean regulations around self-distancing and lockdowns.

"The above facts illustrate but one thing; that I was never in willful default. The explanation for my failure to oppose the process commenced before this Honourable Court is reasonable," she said.

She alleged that no due diligence was done to contact her and went to attach the Zvimba RDC assessment notices for the payment of levies which contains her address as P.O Box 1593, Harare.

Rodrigues said the address is still active and houses a company she jointly owns with her late husband.

She also told the High Court that the residents took advantage of Covid-19 to mount an application with full knowledge that the prospects of it going unopposed and unseen by her were high.

The affected areas Lot 10 A and Lot 11

Rodrigues said she never abandoned her farm and still has interest in it.

"I am the co-owner of the undivided share in two pieces of land situated in the district of Salisbury called Lot 10A and Lot 11 Spitzkop registered under Deed of Transfer Number 2568/88. See Annexure "C" being a copy of my deed.

"The 1st and 2nd Respondents approached the court alleging that the land was abandoned by its owners and desired to acquire it.

"That was not true. I never at any point abandoned my land and still want it. In any event, the 1st and 2nd Respondents' founding affidavit referred to DT2563/88. I am advised that a case stands or falls on its founding papers."

She said the association cannot seek to hold on to a default judgment adding that she deserves to be heard on merits.

Demand for answers from the court

She said she wanted to understand how the court issued an order when the application and all adverts related to a different deed.

Rodrigues said she bought the property in question in 1988 together with the late Urebai Rodrigues.

She said it is therefore not just for her to lose the property to the respondents who did not spend any money on it.

The applicant also said at no stage did the respondents mistake their status as farm employees.

"In their own words, they were "cheap labour", she said.

She also complained that the court was not told about the current membership of the association and how long they have resided at the property and on what basis.

"Secondly, I deny the fact that the 1st and 2nd Respondents resided at the property at any time before the present application.

"The farm was vacant as we always went to check if no land barons had taken up occupation on the land. It was in one of these regular checks that we discovered that access roads were being created in the land and some land developers had started advertising for sale.

"The 1st and 2nd Respondents alleged that they conducted a thorough due diligence with the Zvimba RDC and found that rates had never been paid since 1988. This is false. Of note is the fact that Zvimba RDC only came into being in 1993. So how could rates be paid in 1988 to a non-existent entity?

"To further demonstrate the fabrications, Zvimba RDC would write and deliver a rates assessment letter to me at my physical address which I still use to date, every year until 2002 when it stopped. I would, as such, pay the assessed levy, the last of which was paid in 2002- the last year the RDC sent the assessment.

"A perusal of the record will reveal that the application and founding affidavit as well as the draft order referred to Deed of Transfer Number 2563/88. The said Deed of Transfer does not belong to me or relate to my land," she said.

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