×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

Mugabe’s ex-pilot dragged into nasty SA land fight

News
BUSINESS magnate Robert Mhlanga has been sucked into a dispute between two businesspeople in neighbouring South Africa, who are feuding over the payment of a R5 million commission for facilitating a land deal with the Zimbabwean.

BUSINESS magnate Robert Mhlanga has been sucked into a dispute between two businesspeople in neighbouring South Africa, who are feuding over the payment of a R5 million commission for facilitating a land deal with the Zimbabwean.

STAFF REPORTER/ MERCURY NEWSPAPER

Reports from Durban, South Africa, claim the Mbada Diamonds chairman and President Robert Mugabe’s former personal pilot, was at the centre of the dispute.

gavel

According to the Mercury newspaper, Durban High Court Judge Piet Koen is presiding over the case pitting international pharmaceutical and advertising guru, Martin Sherwood against Michelle Mauvis, the wife of a Durban restaurant owner, Robert.

Sherwood, the paper reported, claims he introduced Michelle to Mhlanga.

This resulted in Mhlanga paying R100 million for her 7-hectare plot on the border of the plush Zimbali Estate on the North Coast, which she had bought 20 years before for R100 000.

He says it was understood by both parties, Mhlanga and their attorneys, that he [Sherwood] would get a 5% “commission” for the introduction, but Michelle flatly denies this and refuses to pay.

“It is an issue of principle for me rather than anything else,” Sherwood said during his evidence on the first day of the trial on Monday.

“I feel very let down.”

The case has exposed details of Mhlanga’s property “shopping trip” where he paid highly inflated prices for several properties in the Durban area, the paper reported.

Sherwood’s 7ha, for which Mhlanga paid R85 million, came with development rights, a mansion and a stunning view over Zimbali’s golf course and the sea.

But Michelle’s property, which was zoned agricultural land, only had a small shop and pottery and had a less attractive view.

Mhlanga, while prepared to give an affidavit confirming that he was aware of the 5% deal, says he is not in South Africa and cannot testify.

Mauvis’s lawyers are fighting the admissibility of his affidavit, saying it would be “immensely prejudicial” because he cannot be cross-examined.

It was agreed that the issue would be dealt with at a later stage, and that Mhlanga’s attorney, Paul Casasola, would be called to testify.

In his evidence-in-chief, Sherwood said his relationship with Michelle had been fraught since she had sided with Moreland in a court dispute over access to his property “which cost me in the region of R2 million” and had resulted in his land being less valuable in terms of development.