By Own Correspondent- Businessman and Zimpapers board chairperson Delma Lupepe’s bid to retain his property seized by a local bank over a 200k loan hit a snag after the High Court threw out his application for more time to service the loan.

Lupepe had approached the court seeking rescission of judgment in a matter in which Ecobank had obtained an order to eject him after he failed to pay rentals for the property.

The property was taken over by the bank, following his failure to service a $200 000 loan.

In his court application, Lupepe had pleaded with the court saying: “Respondent (Ecobank) herein applied for summary judgment on December 13, 2016. Applicant (Lupepe) filed a notice of opposition on December 29, 2016. The case was set down for hearing on July 14, 2017. I, hereby, submit that I inadvertently and unwittingly diarised the date of hearing as Monday July 17, 2017,” he said, adding he was not in wilful default.

But High Court judge Justice Happius Zhou, dismissed Lupepe’s application on the basis that his matter lacked merit.-Newsday