Van Blerk says targeted misinformation campaign is...

Van Blerk says targeted misinformation campaign is a bid to obfuscate court proceedings

Retired Augur Investment managing director Michael Van Blerk has dismissed allegations against the organisation floating around saying they are false and part of a targeted campaign over pending legal matters.

“This misinformation campaign has been largely expressed on underground media platforms, driven by people desperate to avoid accountability.

“My suspicion is that defendants accused of wrongdoing against Augur and its employees are using these false statements to evade responsibility before Zimbabwe's legitimate courts,” wrote Van Blerk in a statement.

Van Blerk says he has undertaken to make the statement of his own free will without any coercion or request from Augur or anyone else and without having met the lawyers nor having seen the Fairclot Court trial documents.

Van Blerk account of what transpired read:

In 2008, Augur Investments OU and the City of Harare formed a joint venture for the Sunshine land development project. Zimbabwean staff were recruited for this work, which included Mbudzi People's Market, a 6000 square meter covered market, amongst other projects.

The government approved this joint venture, and in 2009, Augur registered as a foreign investor with the Ministry of Justice. This JV invited Augur to plan, design, and construct the Airport Highway. As the Airport Highway is a national road, Augur and the COH were required to obtain government approval in order for Augur to construct it.

One of the largest road construction companies in Southern Africa, Power Roads, priced the project independently. The recently built Ngezi Road which was finished with chip and spray tarmac inferior to the asphalt finish of the Airport High way, was compared to the Airport Highway, and found to be more expensive despite the cheaper chip and spray product. Augur's price for asphalt per running meter was considerably lower.

The plan was approved by the President and Cabinet after being presented to Government. The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Local Government were designated as Government supervisors by Cabinet with final approval received from the Ministry of Finance.

Due to the municipality's inability to make cash payments, 90% of Augur's payment was offered in the form of land instead of cash. The government supported this initiative and contributed additional land to the project in order to aid the COH. This was reduced to a legally binding contract signed by both parties.

Before land tranches were paid out to Augur, the Zimbabwean-hired design engineers, Ministry of Transport engineers, COH engineers, and Ministry of Local Government engineers were responsible for reviewing and approving the work and progress certificates/invoices.

To facilitate this payment process, Augur formed a number of Zimbabwean landholding corporations and received RBZ approval for these Zimbabwean landholding corporations and their offshore shareholding. Only after official and approved progress payment certification by the three governing entities would land be released.

Augur recruited Fairclot, a local company, as a subcontractor under its direct supervision. Fairclot was not the entity responsible for construction, but rather a subcontractor.

In exchange for its services, Fairclot initially agreed to accept a 25% cash payment and a 75% land payment. This land payment portion could only be made after delivery of title from the COH. Fairclot breached these original contractual terms, and demanded a revision to a 40% cash payment and 60% land payment. Augur paid Fairclot 40% of the invoiced amounts in cash, close to USD 4 million in amount, with the remaining 60% to be paid in land.

The operational incompetence of the COH resulted in massive delays at Augur's expense, impeding work from beginning to end. Augur suffered the brunt of delay-related expenses. The City of Harare then attempted illegally to terminate the valid contract, resulting in arbitration, which Augur, represented by Advocate Nelson Chamisa, ultimately won.

The arbitration and subsequent court award mandated that Augur be compensated with a parcel of government-owned land whose title was held by a law firm with which Augur had a close working relationship. Tragically, the appointed partner of this firm had died, disrupting the flow of information at the law firm, and the title deed was not delivered to Augur. Resolution was affected with the intervention of the Sheriff of the court.

Following the successful arbitration, Fairclot was offered a land parcel as settlement for the outstanding payment.

Fairclot declined this contractual payment and elected to pursue legal action. Fairclot was awarded a cash payment as a result of a court ruling, and Augur duly met this obligation.

For unclear reasons, one of the Fairclot directors subsequently had a large billboard slandering Augur's legal rights erected in Borrowdale and is currently on trial for this violation.

Augur continues its land development with multiple award-winning projects and will continue to do so, transforming polluted, undeveloped land in Harare into outstanding residential developments despite the statements made by a few disgruntled defendants on trial for legal misconduct.

These are the facts, which can be verified by examining public court records in cases HC5989/19 and HC10315/19 amongst others.

Fairclot and Augur are involved in settlement disputes.

There are several court cases involving Augur and or related companies

In one case land developer George Katsimberis is a State witness in a matter in which Van Blerk, Pokugara Properties, former Harare City Council town clerk Hosea Chisango and the City of Harare are charged with perjury.

Katsimberis is himself facing fraud charges in a case where Pokugara, is the complainant.

https://zimbabwenow.co.zw/articles/644/katsimberis-wants-concourt-to-hear-his-double-prosecution-challenge

In a related case, Kastimberi’s lawyer Tendai Biti is facing assault charges against a witness in the fraud case.

https://zimbabwenow.co.zw/articles/472/biti-reported-to-lsz-for-threatening-complainant