MBADA Diamonds, one of the country’s leading diamond mining firms, has been taken to court over an outstanding debt of $189 000 owed to African Worldwide Procurement Company (AWPC).
CHARLES LAITON SENIOR COURT REPORTER
The diamond firm has since acknowledged the debt and attributed the default to the liquidity challenges facing the country.
AWPC, through its lawyers Chinyama and Partners, recently approached the High Court under case number HC4610/14 making an application to register a deed of settlement in the sum of $189 000 which Mbada Diamonds acknowledged owing, as a court order,According to the court papers, the acknowledgement of debt, dated April 1, 2014, was executed by Mbada Diamonds’ senior finance manager, only identified in court papers as Miss Sibonile Dhliwayo.
“This letter serves to confirm that we Mbada Diamonds owe the above captioned $189 000 for various goods supplied last year. We also confirm that we have not been paying them for a while now due to liquidity challenges and other constraints facing this company and the economy at large,” Dhliwayo wrote.
“We are, however, in the process of arranging a payment to them which we hope to start paying by the end of the second week of April 2014 and continue to do so, on regular basis until fully paid.”
In terms of the acknowledgement of debt, according to the court papers, the owed amount was supposed to have been paid to AWCP on or before April 30 2014. However, Mbada Diamonds failed to fulfil their promise forcing the procurement firm to approach the court for recourse.
“The plaintiff (AWCP) supplied the goods as far back as 2013 and this is acknowledged by the defendant. Demand was made by the plaintiff in its personal capacity and demand was also made of the defendant by the plaintiffs’ legal practitioners through a letter dated May 21 2014.
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“Despite these demands, the defendant has failed/refused to pay the amount due to the plaintiff,” Chinyama and Partners legal practitioners said in their summons for provisional sentence.
The signed deed of settlement read in part: “Now, therefore, it is agreed that; the defendant pays to the plaintiff the capital sum of $120 000 by Friday the 20th of June 2014 and the defendant shall pay the balance of $69 000 in two instalments by July 31 and August 29 2014 into the plaintiff’s account.”
