Staff Reporter
Gweru magistrate Miriam Banda has cancelled a warrant of arrest to a Gweru man who is being accused of converting to personal use 12 residential stands belonging to property developer, River Valley Properties and ordered the State to proceed by way of summons in the matter.
Banda ruled that the case should be removed from remand after the State indicated it needed more time to go through the papers.
Mugeza Hove (70) of Hertfordshire farm in Gweru was last year arraigned before the courts facing theft charges.
The State case is that on a date unknown River Valley was allocated 1 604 stands at Hertfordshire Phase 2A to develop houses as part of a project for beneficiaries in the Midlands province.
In July 2010 and April 2014 respectively the then ministry of public works gave two offer letters to River Valley, which confirmed ownership of the stands by the property developer.
But on a date not given in State papers the accused sold 12 serviced stands which had already been allocated to clients by the complainant.
The matter later came to light when River Valley was following up on payments on its clients for the stands.
A report was made to the police leading to Hove’s arrest.
The value of the stands is US $341 318 and nothing was recovered.