THE High Court is next month expected to bring finality to the matter involving furniture manufacturing firm Monomotapa Garden Furniture, which has been at the centre of an ownership wrangle between Athur Fernando Pieria Dias and a Chinese couple.
REPORT BY SENIOR COURT REPORTER
The Harare-based firm which is at the centre of controversy operates under the name Shomet Industrial Development and according to court papers it belongs to the Dias family.
However, sometime in 2005, it is alleged Dias on his own behalf and also acting as an agent of the firm, entered into an agreement with a Chinese couple identified as Zhaosheng Wu and Yan Yu in which he is said to have sold the entire shareholding at an agreed price of $400 000. But Dias later decided to cancel the agreement after the Chinese investors failed to pay the agreed price.
He then filed an urgent chamber application to reclaim his shares, but the application was, however, dismissed as “not being urgent” by High Court judge Justice Anne-Mary Gowora in 2010.
The judge said in her judgment: “It is also clear that it is not news to the applicants (Dias family) that the second and third respondents (the Chinese couple) have been running the affairs and business of the company clandestinely. They were given full control.”
The parties’ dispute, however, later saw the arrest of former Monomotapa Garden Furniture company secretary, Dawid Johannes Erasmus, over fraud after he allegedly imposed himself as one of the firm’s directors.
Erasmus was sentenced to perform 420 hours of community service, but his sentence was stayed by High Court judge Justice Charles Hungwe pending determination of the appeal in case CA 376/12.
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The parties now wait to appear before High Court judge Justice Happious Zhou on October 17 for ruling over the matter.
Meanwhile, the Dias family has been ordered to keep peace against the Chinese couple following an order granted by Harare magistrate Milton Serima in June last year.
