Former RBZ governor Gono accused of extortion, fabrication as company grab trial continues

By Staff Reporter 

LAWYERS representing a Harare couple accused of grabbing a company from former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono have accused him of trying to extort the two of US$50,000 by “abusing his closeness to corridors of  power” and threatening them with arrest.

Gono was in court as a key witness against Clark Clever Makoni and his wife Beverly Aisha Ndonda Makoni on Friday, accusing the two of fraudulently changing his company documents to elbow him out.

The State alleges that in July 2017, Gono engaged the services of the accused persons to manage Valley Lodge, among other properties.

The State also alleges that the couple forged a CR14 form for Valley Lodge [Pvt] ]Ltd] in which Clark Makoni appointed himself a director and company secretary and Beverly  Makoni as a director in Valley Lodge.

This Friday Gono told the court that after the matter came out, Clark initiated a meeting and apologised before agreeing to pay the US$50,000 as compensation.

However, he said, the deed of settlement  did not materialise because Beverly was not present and she refused to sign the papers, adding that Clark never returned to him for the agreement to be consummated.

Gono conceded that the deed of Settlement had to be signed by three parties for it to be legally valid.

This is after the couple denied entering into an agreement with him.

Admire Rubaya representing the couple took the banker to task for signing documents which described Clark as the Managing Director and Beverly as the Finance Director yet the State alleges they gave themselves the positions after altering the company documents.

This came after Gono was shown the alleged agreement which he signed showing the two as the managing and finance director including the said minutes of the meeting.

The deed of settlement stated that “Gono was to instruct” his people to withdraw the cases when the agreement is signed and that he would not have been in court.

The couple, through their lawyers, questioned why Gono was prepared to withdraw the charges if indeed they had stolen from him which the couple believes was an extortion attempt.

It emerged that Clark  Makoni was arrested  and detained twice by the ZRP and ZACC over the same allegations and the couple’s lawyer averred that was stark evidence that Gono abused his power to mistreat them as that was his culture to illtreat those close to him after using them.

The couple said Gono  had used the same approach on one Ralph Muzembe who was his best man at his wedding.

Muzembe, who previously  was the one managing the Valley Lodge business, was reportedly Gono’s right hand man who was unceremoniously discarded through the Makonis on Gono’s instructions.

Gono also said he had no expert evidence to state that the couple signed documents which were presented to Mutare ZB Bank.

It has also emerged that Gono is neither  a shareholder of Valley Lodge [Pvt] nor a director of same since he has not yet paid the full purchase price for the lodge and no formalities for change of ownership had taken place from the Omar brothers.

Gono told the court that the allege  meetings which culminated into the deed of settlement had allegedly been recorded on audio and video. However, Gono did not have such evidence in place to corroborate his story that Clark had signed the alleged documents.

The matter continues on July 11.