Staff Reporter
Former Chivhu Ward 10 Councillor Emmanuel Punungwe is embroiled in an ugly stand scam after he fraudulently sold his relative’s residential stand in Chivhu’s Highview Suburb to two different people sometime in December 2018 and in February 2020.
This week, Punungwe appeared before Chivhu magistrate Batanai Madzingira facing fraud under case Chivhu CR 66\03\21.
Circumstances are that in February last year, Punungwe showed an unsuspecting home-seeker Knowledge Mboneka a residential stand in Highview high density suburb, Stand Number 3699, which he said was his and was going for US$3 200.00. The stand actually belonged to his cousin Laina Punungwe who had no intention of selling it.
Mboneka on 24 February 2020 paid US$2 232.00 with the balance of US$868.00 expected to be settled by 31 August 2020. The two proceeded to sign an agreement of sale in which Punungwe misrepresented information to the effect that the stand he had shown and sold to Mboneka was stand Number 1355 instead of stand number 3699, Highview.
Stand number 1355 belongs to Punungwe and that’s where the former councillor is building his house which is almost complete.
On 2 June 2020, Mboneka noted that someone had started developments at Stand Number 3699.
His enquiries established that Punungwe had sold the stand to Blessing Mudhe in December 2018 before the same piece of land was sold to him. Mboneka then filed a report at Chivhu Police Station resulting in the arrest of Punungwe.
Magistrate Madzingira is yet to pass his judgement, but due to the overwhelming evidence the former councillor is expected to be convicted.
Punungwe who is employed by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education as a teacher at Badza Primary School near Chivhu together with his close friend and political ally Edwin Maseva who is also a teacher, were fired as Chikomba RDC councillors.
This is in line with the Public Service Commission regulations as they failed to resign as civil servants upon their election in the 2018 local government elections. Both Punungwe and Maseva have been involved in a number of fraudulent activities, but before this case had managed to evade justice.
The two activists are reportedly angling to contest again as councillors on the MDC-A ticket at the earliest opportunity realising their teaching professions could be in danger as a result of the skeletons coming out of their closets.
Meanwhile, Mboneka has stated that justice should prevail and sink Punungwe for fleecing him his hard-earned cash and scuttling his chances of owning a home.
