Convicted couple duping desperate home seekers
NOTORIOUS wife and husband, Florence (née Behane) Pambukani and Felix Pambukani, who are former convicted and jailed fraudsters, have been fleecing desperate home seekers at Crowhill Farm in Harare.
Crowhill Private Limited owns the property and scores of unsuspecting home seekers have lost their hard-earned money after the couple misled them that they were the legal owners of the land.
The land in question is the Chirika Extension of Borrowdale Estate, measuring 121.4029 hectares, which is held under a transfer deed.
Despite a High Court order issued in 2021 by former judge, Justice Webster Chinamora, and confirmed by the Supreme Court, prohibiting the Pambukanis from selling off the land, the duo allegedly defraud unsuspecting home seekers.
According to court documents seen by iHarare, the High Court ordered the eviction of all the illegal occupants of the land.
However, the illegal occupants who purchased the land from the Pambukanis failed to cooperate with the Sheriff of the High Court’s eviction order, leading to a standoff.
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Crowhil Farm says they have served affected individuals with letters inviting them to regularize their status or face eviction.
The Couple’s History Of Fraud and Deception
The couple’s fraudulent activities have left many desperate land seekers in a precarious situation, with most of them having lost substantial amounts of money.
One legal occupant of Crowhill Farm confirmed that the Pambukanis once served time in prison over fraud.
“I know the Pambukanis after they were convicted of fraud after defrauding Lonrho Zimbabwe and served eight years each in prison. After they were released from prison, they came here to Acorn Farm desperately seeking a stand, and we assisted them.
“At one time in 2017, Florence wanted to contest in the leadership elections for Acorn Farm and we barred her because of her criminal records. Florence knew about our stands, which were 80 at the dam side area, which we wanted to give to a developer who would do a road for us.
“She went secretly to Dr Msipa and convinced him about the formation of Acorn Township Developing Association, a cooperative. But all this was for her and her husband to gain monetarily,” the resident said.
“The Pambukanis own a mere stand which is just a tiny fraction of that is in Cleverhill Estate and far from where they are selling and leasing unsuspecting individuals. It is clear on the map that their rightful stand number 720 is on the Msipa side, ” he said.
Efforts to get a comment from the Pambukanis were fruitless as their phones were unreachable until the time of publication.
The Pambukanis are not good people, they are stealing from the people. They don’t own land here.”
The couple is also accused of name-dropping, claiming to be closely connected to senior government officials as a streak of history of evicting farmers from their land.
Last year, it is alleged that the couple hired thugs, who were armed with machetes, to attack workers at Wakefield Farm in the Selous Area 5, a farm they also illegally tried to wrestle from the owner, Kenneth Bartholomew.
The farm workers were severely injured, and some are still receiving treatment at Chegutu Hospital.
The takeover of Wakefield Farm by the Pambukanis also resulted in the eviction of 35 families, including children and the elderly.
However, Bartholomew had written approval from the Agriculture minister to stay on his farm, but the Pambukanis took over the farm from him, and Bartholomew was evicted in 2011.
In 2008, the Pambukanis illegally took over Scotsdale Farm leading to the death of its rightful owner, Kobus Joubert, in 2010.
After the eviction of Joubert, the couple also evicted all the farm workers who are now homeless after working there for years.
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