by Staff Reporter
HARARE-Reports suggesting that the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Housing Association (ZAHA) owned by convicted fraudster Killer Zivhu intends to sue Transport minister Obert Mpofu to recover the more than $1.5 million allegedly locked in Mpofu’s now defunct Allied Bank is merely a smokescreen to mislead the public who lost money after the two corrupt ZANU-PF officials connived to fleece the desperate home-seekers, sources revealed this week.
At the weekend, Zivhu was reported as saying ZAHA was planning to sue failed Allied Bank owner, Mpofu, and his investment firm, Trebor Khays, as well as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in order to recover over $1.5 million of the housing consortium’s funds that was lost when the bank closed early this year.
“We have decided that we will sue the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Obert Mpofu and his company Trebor Khays for $1.5 million that we lost when Allied Bank closed,” Zivhu said.
“We have been advised the liquidator has written to Mpofu demanding that he hands over the assets in the form of buildings he promised when he bought into the bank.
“Mpofu was aware that the bank was not on sound footing but for two years continued to risk people’s funds. This has to be challenged.”
Sources however pointed out that this was a scam that Mpofu and Zivhu came up with the steal from desperate home seekers.
“Everyone knew that Allied Bank was not a sound bank, but Zivhu made it compulsory for all home-seekers who wanted to join ZAHA projects to open accounts with that bank and then sign stop order forms to enable the bank to make regular funds transfers to the ZAHA account, “ source said. “It was clear from the start that something fishy was being planned and it was not surprising that in the end Mpofu and Zivhu looted the money. Zivhu will make a show of suing Mpofu and RBZ to make their victims believe that indeed their money sank together with the bank, but the truth is that this was something well-planned.”
Zivhu is a convicted fraudster. In 2005 he was jailed for three years for fleecing members of his other outfit, the Zimbabwe Cross-border Traders Association, of equivalent of thousands of US dollars in false foreign currency deals. Now chairman of the Chivi Rural District Council, Zivhu has since repackaged himself as a philanthropists, making one generous donation after another as he seek to raise his profile nationally in readiness for a higher political office. Only last week he announced his intention to take over the provincial chairmanship of ZANU-PF in Masvingo.
Mpofu, the self-confessed richest Cabinet minister in President Robert Mugabe’s government, is known to be one of the most corrupt government officials.
