Jane Mlambo| Former Finance minister Dr Ignatius Chombo has been implicated in a land wrangle case by a renowned deceased Harare lawyer Inviolata Dumbutshena who defeated the Zimbabwe Defence Forces in court.

Chombo who during his time as the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing acquired vast tracts of land is alleged to have been the owner of the residential stands behind Strathaven Shopping Centre in Avondale, Harare which the ZDF sought to illegally grab from Invioletta Dumbutshena’s client Mrs Mary Madzima.

According to a ZimEye source, “These residential stands on paper belong to Mrs Mary Madzima but the real owner is Dr. Ignatius Chombo. The legal fees for this Defence were paid by Dr Chombo. Mrs Mary Madzima and Dr Ignatius Chombo are friends and she benefited a lot of favours from him, from supplying uniforms in most government departments including ZRP jerseys.

“Now when Dr Chombo intended to make these residential stands his, he hatched a plan whereby Mrs Mary Madzima would go for an Interview that she intended to acquire the stands in order to construct a crèche for kids.

“Dr Chombo had already spoken to the then Minister of Primary & Secondary Education, Mr. Lazarus Dokora about the issue who then conducted the interview. Mrs Mary Madzima was then promised a residential stand as a token of appreciation in Pomona Borrowdale.

“After the interview the residential stands were then put in Mrs Mary Madzima’s name and she was given a token of appreciation as agreed. What she then did was to register the Pomona residential stand in her daughter’s name, Chiedza Madzima.

“These residential stands are still there in the names as given above.

“Right now Invioletta’s mother is furious with Mrs Mary Madzima as she is claiming compensation for the loss of her daughter.

“She is aware that her daughter stood in for a case of land that was fraudulently converted to someone’s name for their benefit,” the source said.