CommuTalk Reporter
GWERU – A Gweru land baron, Mageza Hove (70) is in court for allegedly creating and selling stands on State land at Heitfordshire Farm on the city’s outskirts.
I doing so, Hove supposedly prejudiced the state of $316 000.
Hove who is being represented by lawyer Thomas Militao appeared before Gweru magistrate, Miriam Banda facing 12 counts of theft and is denying the charges.
He was remanded on free bail to December 1 2020.
The court heard that sometime in 2004, Herfordshire Farm was acquired by Government for urban expansion.
Servicing of stands was granted to private property developer, River Valley Properties, which serviced 2 000 residential stands on the farm under Herfordshire phases one and two.
Hove contested the acquisition of land and lost the court case, but clandestinely proceeded to allocate residential stands to unsuspecting people before pocketing the money. It also emerged that neither Hove nor his late brother, Luke Hove, ever owned the farm.
The late Luke Hove was mistakenly given an offer letter in 2009, but it was later withdrawn.
