Bankrupt Zifa property attached again

THE Messenger of Court is becoming a regular visitor at bankrupt Zifa.

Yesterday the Deputy Sheriff was back at the Zifa headquarters at 53 Livingstone Avenue where he attached more property  this time over a US$57 232,65 debt to Pandhari Lodge.

The attached property included a few office chairs, desks, computers and filing cabinets.

Ruby Auctions, acting on instructions from the Deputy Sheriff, descended on Zifa House in the morning and stripped all the offices bare.

They grabbed the office furniture which had been replaced after the Messenger of Court had two months ago impounded property over an overdue debt owed to advertising agency OM and A Ogilvy.

Two buses and as many vehicles and some office furniture were attached in May at the haunted Zifa headquarters and nearly went under the hammer at Ruby Auctions before Zifa president Cuthbert Dube intervened to offset the debt and block the sale.

Yesterday it was the turn of Pandhari Lodge, who of late have been housing the Warriors during their camps, who have dragged Zifa to the Deputy Sheriff.

Pandhari has also been the venue where some of the Zifa board members, who stay out of Harare, stayed.

A few office chairs and tables, less than  five computers and some filing drawers could be seen being loaded in the Ruby Auctions van as the Zifa employees watched helplessly.

In March, Pandhari also filed a lawsuit seeking to recover their money with interest - for the hospitality facilities and services it provided to Warriors and their visiting teams such as Liberia between August and December last year.

Despite the lawsuit the Warriors continued to stay at the lodge but the senior team suffered the embarrassment of being locked out of their rooms after a training session                       at the same venue last month as Pandhari pressed for their dues.

The lodge also confiscated the players’ passports on the eve of their trip to Mozambique.

Zifa lawyer Ralph Maganga said last night that he had met Dube after which they resolved to meet with their creditor and find an amicable resolution to the matter.

Maganga said he was confident the matter would be resolved well before the property goes under the hammer.

“We have engaged the creditor and Pandhari have agreed hopefully the property will be returned tomorrow but for that to be done Zifa are supposed to pay first a debt service commission to the deputy sheriff and Zifa are now working on that,” said  Maganga.

In May last year, Zifa survived the execution of their property after former Warriors coach Sunday Chidzambwa won a writ of execution to attach property over a US$67 000 debt.

Zifa, challenging the amount demanded by the veteran coach, moved in to block the attachment of their property.

The dispute is still raging before the High Court.

Comments