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Collen Murahwa Herald reporter
A Harare lawyer has been sucked into an estate dispute after a 90-hectare farm was allegedly undervalued in a bid to avoid paying fees to the Master of the High Court.

Seven members of the Chitenderu family accuse their cousin, Largenote, and the executor of the estate, Mr Martin Murimambeva of Mapaya and Partners, of forging their signatures and undervaluing the Chitenderu Family Trust property.

The farm, Holding Rowa 9 in Zimunya, which measures 89,9ha, belonged to the late Reuben Chitenderu, who died in 2012.

In a statement following a report to the police, Mr Simon Madi from the Master of the High Court revealed that the executor undervalued the farm, claiming it was State property.

“The executor assigned the value of $10 000 against the farm, arguing that the farm belongs to the State and as such is of no commercial value,” reads the state- ment.

“It would, however, appear the farm may not be of ‘no commercial value’ as it has title which can be passed on to third parties. There is, therefore, a potential misrepresentation of facts on the status of the farm. The motive could have been to undervalue the farm with the view to pay low fees.

“This has the effect of prejudicing the fiscus in revenue. Only $400 fees were paid in Master’s fees as per the value assigned by the executor.”

Mr Madi further revealed that the registration was improperly done as the distribution account was not confirmed by the Master’s office.

“I wish to further state that the estate distribution account was not confirmed by our office for distribution and as such transfer to the Trust could not have been effected unless there was a competent court order to the effect,” he said.

“Our office has queried how the transfer was effected without the confirmed account or other acceptable authority document issued by the Master.

“We strongly believe this is an issue that should be thoroughly investigated by the police, especially on the background that Deeds Office seems to be indicating that they did not issue any directive authorising transfer without authority documents from the Master’s Office.”

According to a letter addressed to the Master of High Court, Mr Emmanuel Chitenderu, Largenote is administering the farm and “influencing all the shenanigans”.

“The only person who is neither a beneficiary, dependant nor creditor is Largenote Chitenderu, who for his shenanigans is presiding over the affairs of the deceased farm through a concocted and forged Deed of Trust number 339/13 and Deed of Transfer 1876/13 respectively,” reads the letter.

In September 2016, Largenote is alleged to have sent some people who, without a court order, demolished Kenneth Chitenderu’s shop and bottle store at the farm and went on to demolish Emmanuel’s fence which demarcated his portion of the land.

The family claims Largenote illegally registered the Deed of Trust and also forged signatures by putting initials against their names.

When contacted for comment, Largenote refuted the allegations of undervaluing the farm, but said most of his actions were based on meetings held with all those concerned.

“I have minutes of the meetings some of which are on audio recordings,” he said. “I am downloading them so that you can listen to the minutes.”

Mr Godfrey Mapaya of Mapaya and Associates said everything done by Largenote and Mr Murimambeva “was above board”.