Fuel dealer and Harare businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei has been dragged to the High Court by ex-business partner and Gokwe Nembudziya MP Justice Mayor Wadyajena for allegedly illegally terminating a business contract.
by Own Correspondent
In a High Court challenge filed by Wadyajena representing his firm Mayor Logistics, the Zanu PF lawmaker wants Tagwirei through his company Sakunda Energy to pay him $18 million for “illegally terminating” the contract to distribute fuel countrywide on Sakunda’s behalf.
Court papers filed show that Mayor Logistics, a company which claims to have been authorised to distribute fuel to all Sakunda stations countrywide, had the agreement terminated without following due process.
The papers filed state that: “On December 6 2012, the plaintiff (Sakunda Energy) and the defendant (Mayor Logistics) entered into a contract, in terms of which the plaintiff appointed the defendant as the exclusive distributor of all its fuels secured for the local Zimbabwe market.
“However, in breach of the said agreement, and despite, plaintiff has failed and/or neglected to fulfil any of its contractual undertakings as stated,” the court papers filed by Machingura Legal Practitioners read.
Mayor Logistics want Sakunda to pay it $18 million for loss of income as well as the cost of the lawsuit.
According to papers filed, Mayor Logistics had the sole mandate to distribute fuel on behalf of Sakunda, but when the contract was terminated, the company approached the Commercial Arbitration Centre for recourse.
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But Sakunda through its lawyers, Manase and Manase, approached the High Court to stop the arbitration process stating that the alleged contract entered between Sakunda and Mayor was fraudulently executed “by people with no mandate to do so”.
The papers filed by Mayor Logistics reveal that the disputed agreement was signed by Archie Ngwenya and one Mutumba representing Sakunda, while Wadyajena represented Mayor Logistics.
“The defendant’s legal representatives were further advised that Archie J Ngwenya had not been authorised to enter into suc h an agreement and that there were no minutes, records or any board resolutions ratifying this agreement,” Sakunda’s response to the High Court challenge reads.
“It was also accentuated that Mr Ngwenya, together with Mr Mutumba, who witnessed the agreement, had never worked for the plaintiff. The plaintiff, through its legal representatives of record, completely repudiated the agreement,” Sakunda’s papers stated.
The fuel dealer stated that it “was unaware of the existence of such an agreement until September 112014 and its authenticity is questioned. The plaintiff never authorised anyone to enter into this agreement with defendant and those who did so supposedly on plaintiff’s behalf never worked for the plaintiff and had neither the authority nor the legal standing to do so”.
