PART 1 | In a shocking case of spiritual abuse, British businessman, Paul Westwood was ripped off by a Zimbabwean pastor from Celebration Ministries, Hammarskjold Banda.
Westwood had in trust appointed Banda and the pastor’s wife, Brendally co signatories in his company, a loophole that effectively granted the two super-powers to do whatever they wanted because there were presently only three bank signatories set up: Westwood, Pastor Banda and the preacher’s wife.

That default led to the married couple operationally seizing the company from Mr Westwood in a tragic corporate take over leading to Pastor Banda surreptitiously trading off half of the company to Karoi businessman Temba Mliswa for which Pastor Banda soon began charging Westwood for alleged fraud. Below is the full unedited story in Mr Westwood’s own words:
By Paul Westwood | FULL TEXT
Dear ZimEye.
Thank you for coming back to me, much appreciated.
I apologise for sending you tonnes of documentation and proof but the more you know the greater the truth can be exposed for the world to read! Knowledge is power.
Here are the FACTS in summary:
I met Hammarskjold Banda in 1995 as he applied for a job as a sales rep at Harare Toyota. The human resources manager said Banda did not have the qualifications for the position but I stated” everyone deserves a chance in life” so we gave him a chance.
Banda was a hard working young man at the time. Very diplomatic, always punctual, well dressed and a great sales rep. He spoke very highly of his church and encouraged me to come along but I was not ready for the transformation at the time.
I left Harare Toyota in 1999 after a very successful career as Sales Manager to go and set up Motor City Toyota a new franchise which was owned by Duly’s at the time. I set up all the systems and structures and built offices upstair as the dealership was too small for the forecasted volumes. Seke road was an ideal location and soon Motor City Toyota was the market leader in terms of sales volumes of vehicles, parts, and service hours.
An opportunity came up for me to buy my own franchise in January 2000. I borrowed money and bought Nuffield Toyota. It was situated on Douglas road with 7000 metres of prime space. I installed state of the art equipment in the workshops, hoists, wheel alignment machines, balancing machines, brake machines, lathe machines, machine room, I built a fuel station on the property with two underground tanks, (One for diesel, one for petrol) as I made sure my customers had a full tank of fuel when they bought vehicles from me (Fuel was short at the time). I had a bonded warehouse on site as well as our own in house panel beating.
Sales started to fall as “grey imports” well becoming more popular with the customer but I could not sell them due to the fact that I had a Toyota franchise. In 2005 I decided to sell Nuffield Toyota, lock, stock and barrel to Croco Motors (I negotiated the deal through lawyers with Farai Matsika and Moses Ngwenya who decided to buy the entire business.
This allowed me to focus on my vision of becoming “The leading one stop shop in S.A.D.C.” and Noshio Motors was born. It was common knowledge I was very, very rich in the market place! I bought property, placed money on the stock exchange, bought stock vehicles and found premises at the old Hyundai building along Coventry road. It was at this point that Hammarskjold Banda approached me to be partners in the business!! I knew I could not build an empire alone so I agreed to work with Banda as I knew he had potential and believed he would be a great asset for the company and future. On the 20 May 2005 I bought and paid for a shelf company Noshio Investments which was trading as Noshio Motors. Banda NEVER gave me any money as he had none as he was out of work at the time!
On Fathers Day 2005 Hammarskjold Banda asked me to come to his Church for a Fathers Day special. It was on this day I dedicated my life to God and got “Born Again”. My spiritual journey from Saul to Paul had begun! I TRUSTED Hammarskjold Banda and his wife Brendaly Banda and believed we were part of a family now, The Kingdom family… I got baptised, did entering the Kingdom (Banda was my teacher) walking free, equipping track, purple book, mountain top marriages and majoring in men (All Christian foundational teachings as I wanted to become a Pastor myself due to my thirst for Jesus)(I was a young naïve baby Christian)
I allowed Brendaly Banda to become the Finance and Administration Manager as well as making her a signatory at the bank. (Hammarskjold Banda and his wife could sign together or myself and Brendaly Banda or Hammarskjold Banda and myself!! Very big mistake on my part!!) Brendaly Banda went about issuing the share certificates 51% to Banda and 51% to my self. I financed the whole start up of the company by buying special tools and equipment, motor vehicles for the company, computers, furniture, and much more, with the agreement that Banda would pay me back over a 5 year period!! I didn’t really need the money and I thought I was helping a brother in Christ out. (I honestly believed that Banda would do the same for me)
Hammarskjold Banda and his wife became Pastors at Celebration Churchin May 2006. Banda was a senior Pastor and armour bearer for Pastor Tom. I was very happy for both of them. I was asked to get involved in the church and be involved in Action committee which I humbly accepted. This was very time consuming which meant I would be away from work a lot. I believed in my heart and mind the Banda’s would be good stewards of what God had entrusted them with and look after my company, after all Hammarskjold Banda had still not paid for his shares.
In June 2007 I was asked to vacate the premises along Coventry road which belonged to old mutual. My lease was coming to an end and they wanted to use their property. At this point I approached a friend of my father and asked if we could merge Benbar with Noshio Motors. He told me they were actually looking to sell the business. I negotiated a price. Noshio Motors (Not Banda) paid half the amount with commissions received from Thailand (I sent you all the sales the company did, as well as all the commissions the company received) I used my personal property as collateral. I had put a deposit down on a house which I had agreed with the owner I would pay off on a “rent to buy scheme”.
Banda was living in a one roomed flat on 4th street. He then moved to Mabelreign but went too the Jesuits and lied to them claiming he was “homeless” and they offered him a home in Groombridge to rent (Which the company paid rent for). He stayed in that home for about six months but the Jesuits found out he lied and evicted him. I went to see them as they were a very big customer of mine. They warned me Banda was a conman. I was offered a house in Borrowdale which I let Banda go view. He moved in (Company paid for rent, zesa, water, fuel, servants, school fees, clothing allowance, groceries, and much more) Banda had a house warming as he was a Pastor and Cell Leader at the church now. He told the cell members the house was his and they ALL brought gifts as offerings thinking the Lord has blessed Banda abundantly as he told them he and his wife owned Benbar and Noshio Motors too!!
I had a major back operation in 2007
As a shareholder/Owner/Director of my company I had employed “competent. hardworking and TRUSTWORTHY” people to run my business successfully, especially Pastors Hammarskjold Banda and His wife Brendaly. Banda’s sister in-law also worked at the company (She had an affair with Dennis Ngorima and have a child together) Banda employed his cousins and cell members at my company but I did not mind at the time as we had a covenant with Jesus and everyone had the same principles as me like Honesty, Character, Integrity Compassion and Credibility. When I came back to work I realised something was not right!1
My fathers friend wanted his payment and the company could not pay nor could Banda!! I ended up using my personal property as payment for BENBAR which meant I actually owned the shares 100% now in terms of capital injection.
On 22 October 2009 I went to see the company Lawyer Shepard Makonyere and told him exactly what was going on. He advised me due to the fact that I am major shareholder I have the authority to suspend Mrs Benda which he highly recommended. I did so,and told her to leave the premises immediately. She tried to take the laptop which I told her to leave. As soon as she left I managed to get a copy of the computers hard drive for auditing purposes. 30 minutes later Mrs Banda came back with the Police claiming I had stolen her laptop. I gave the laptop to the company Lawyer who kept it in trust as evidence.
Banda was in SA at the time “buying stock” and raced home to defend his wife. He refused to come to work and held the company to ransom to “pay me back” for suspending his wife. I had a meeting with Banda which I recorded on is on my Affadavit (All he said was he would walk away and sign over the shares to me) I had a potential investor ready and waiting to inject capital into my company. Next thing I know on the 18 December 2009 at 4pm Hammarskjold Banda and Brendaly Banda drive into my company with Temba Mliswa, Martin Mutasa, Alfred Mwatiwamba, Nigel Godknows Murambirwa (Illigitimate son of Didymus Mutasa) and George Marere.
Temba said “I have a “Banda Trust” in my hand and in line with indigenisation, I now OWN this company! The President is well aware that I am here. If you challenge me Paul, I will make you disappear and you will never see you wife and kids again”. This was a very well thought out, planned, orchestrated and timed plan, as the workers were waiting for Banda to come and sign the cheque so I could pay the a bonus, say thank you and let them go on their well deserved Christmas break. (Mrs Banda was running the payroll and giving herself, her sister (Who was still suspended, pending the audit report) her husband and others a bonus plus 3 months salary from the time she was suspended)
I handed the keys over to Mliswa and left with my wife who witnessed the whole thing. I was ordered to a meeting at Meikles hotel on Saturday 19 December by Mliswa (Who did not pitch up) to meet with his Lawyer Gerald Mlotchwa so I could sign some documents to acknowledge Temba Mliswa as a Shareholder/Director/Chairman/Owner of my company. To this day I have NEVER acknowledged Mliswa as anything but a criminal. The ONLY other “Shareholder” I acknowledge is Banda although he has never actually paid for his shares by way of injecting capital.
I made a police report on 22 December 2009. I was not allowed to go back to my company in 2009 as Mliswa hired bouncers to make me disappear.
A search was done at the deeds office in February 2010 by Victor Zvogbo who was my Lawyer at the time. NO such “BANDA TRUST” exists!! This so called trust must be in existence 14 days prior to Mliswa coming to my company BUT I have to be notified in writing to agree to this and more importantly the shares have to be offered to me 1st…Banda cannot mortgage, sell, donate, transfer or any other his shares without calling for a board meeting whereby a resolution must be passed in favour of said transaction!!
I have always stated Mliswa was brought in to cover up Banda’s theft, the audit, the fraud and everything else Banda and his wife did during their tenure at my company. Mliswa was Mafia, powerful, rich, very aggressive and politically well connected and the Banda’s knew this!! This was a racially motivated HATE crime due to the fact that I was a foreign investor and Temba Mliswa was Provincial Governor of Mashonaland West at the time.
I was NEVER going to win as I am white, I was right and I am British . Mliswa used the system and uncle Didymus Mutasa (Who was the 3rd most powerful man in Zimbabwe at the time) to make sure he was “acquitted” and I would lose my entire investment which I worked so hard to build since I was 16 years old whilst doing my apprenticeship at W.S.Craster. Mliswa is above the law and untouchable today, but there is a tomorrow!1
What Mliswa did was illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, unethical, against my Human and property rights. I was forced to flee the country due to death threats on my life and left EVERYTHING behind. ZANU-PF and the Zimbabwe Government should have protected the workers (Some of whom had been at the company from the time of it’s inception) and myself as a foreign investor.
I am not asking for diamonds or Ferraris but for justice through compensation from ZANU-PF the ZIMBABWE Government, Temba Mliswa, Didymus Mutasa and ALL parties concerned who benefitted from the illegal seizure of my company.
I trust you have a much better understanding now along with the facts and proof I sent you so the TRUTH can come out for the world to see.
May I take this opportunity to thank you for everything you have done and continue to do for my family and I in our quest for justice and closure so we can move on with our lives, we really appreciate ALL your efforts.
Yours Sincerely
Paul