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Mr Buyanga

Crime Reporter
Harare lawyer Mr Roy Harvey has denied allegations of processing fake court papers.

He was responding to a 14-day ultimatum recently issued by the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) to respond in writing following a complaint by a local company, Hamilton Property Holdings (HPH).

This came a month after HPH wrote a letter to the president of the LSZ, Mrs Vimbai Nyemba, raising a complaint against Mr Harvey.

Mrs Nyemba then wrote to Mr Harvey advising him of the developments and the need to respond to the allegations.

In his response, Mr Harvey denied ever forging any court papers concerning the case.

He insisted that investigations against HPH and businessman Mr Frank Buyanga, were still ongoing.

“The complainant is fully aware that the complained of affidavit of Chief Inspector (Joseph) Chikandiwa dated 24th November 2010 is genuine, despite his disclaimer of the 6th December 2010.

“The complainant is also fully aware of the circumstances of the affidavit as they were set out in the replying affidavit of Irene Chiwara with the relevant annexures of Irene Chiwara in response to the opposing papers with the disclaimer; – the replying being in the possession of the complainant,” he said.

In response, HPH maintained that the affidavit of Chief Inspector Chikandiwa dated November 24, 2010 was not genuine and that it was forged by the legal practitioners.

HPH said they stood by the disclaimer affidavit dated December 6, 2010 which exonerated the company from any wrongdoing.

“Imminent eviction of Irene Chiwara was independent of the police investigations.

“The information deposed to in the affidavit has since been revealed as not true.

“At the time of deposing the affidavit investigations were still underway and a conclusion was yet to be reached therefore such information could not be relied upon.

“The affiant has admitted that the information in the affidavit was wrong. The affidavit gave a conclusive viewpoint of the investigation when in actual fact the investigations were not yet complete,” the company said.

HPH alleged that there were no affidavits taken to Chief Insp Chikandiwa for signing and the signature purported to be his on the affidavit was forged.

The company accused Mr Harvey of carrying out investigations on behalf of Chief Insp Chikandiwa and allegedly deposing the information as it had been obtained or written by the senior police officer.

“It is apparent from the response that it was not the chief inspector who authored that affidavit but rather the legal practitioners with the information they had accessed from the Chief Inspector and they authored the affidavit without his knowledge.

“The purported affidavit contained premature investigations.”

HPH recently said the allegations by Mr Harvey came as a surprise to them as they were aware that criminal investigations against them and Mr Buyanga had been concluded at the time the affidavit was signed.

Police earlier this year cleared Mr Buyanga and his companies of the criminal charges they had been investigating over the past few years.

According to police, there was nothing illegal or criminal in the manner that Buyanga and his companies were conducting business in the country.