By 
By Ross Moyo
Zimbabwe Anti Corruption (ZACC) has been urged to probe and investigate corrupt activities by Kuwadzana Funeral Services owner and Director, William Mukanganise.
A lengthy forensic investivation by TechnoMag brought about this expose which details the corrupt activities by the Kuwadzana Funeral Services Director, William Mukanganise (ID Number 63-435708-F-43) of 60 Eastern Road Greendale North Harare, who fraudulently acquired title deeds to house number 166 Zata Street, National (Mbare), belonging to the late Dorothy and Nhapi Mukanganise and sold it to Alice Zeure, thereby rendering Nhapi’s grandchildren homeless.
TechnoMag investigations revealed that William Mukanganise was working in cahoots with his wife, Georgina Mukanganise, who is a Kuwadzana Funeral Services Co-Director. Dorothy died on 19 September 2019 and was buried at Mhizha Village in Chihota communal lands.
Background
The house in question was allocated to the late Chioko Mukanganise and his wife, Daina, in 1952. The union was blessed with two children, namely Dadirai and Nhapi. Following the death of Daina, Chioko later married Dorothy and the couple had four children, namely Flora, Tobias, Never and Cloud. When Nhapi died, the house was transferred into Dorothy’s name.Nhapi’s grandchild, Diana, who was residing at the property, registered Dorothy’s Estate with the Master of the High Court (File number 1784/21) after paying the necessary fees (See Annexure for receipts). The advertisement was flighted both in The Herald and The Government Gazzette on 22 October 2021.
On 1 November 2021 the Master of the High Court wrote to Diana Mukanganise acknowledging receipt of the MCH form (Executor’s Inventory/Affidavit and Undertaking- DR No 1784/21) [see Annexure].
Annexure shows a copy of the letter from the Master of the High Court. Diana was asked to pay USD500.00 or bank rate equivalent following the valuation of the property.
However, while Diana was still raising the required money, William Mukanganise outwitted her and went on to register the Estate for the second time at the Master of the High Court on 30 March 2022. Another file was created (File number 499/22), which meant that the same property had two files, which is against the law. What William was supposed to do was to continue with the process that had been started by Diana. The property was not supposed to be registered again as it had already been registered by Diana. This shows that the Estate was corruptly registered by William for the second time. William went further to lie to the Master of the High Court that Cloud Mukanganise, the rightful heir, was deceased so that he could acquire the property unhindered.
Furthermore, the documents at the HCC give Cloud’s address as Bidi Village, instead of Mhizha Village, which is located about five kilometres away. Additionally, the documents indicate that Tobias Mukanganise died in 1983, when his actual year of death is 2006. Similarly, Flora, who actually died in 1998, is indicated as having died in 1991. What this demonstrates is that William used money to ensure that he acquired the property. Instead of doing research on the dates of deaths, he just provided false information because he was desperate to quickly acquire the house because he knew that Diana was working on executing the estate.
It is noteworthy that File number 499/22 which was opened by William, is missing from the Master of High Court. There is a need to investigate the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the file, which could be meant to cover up the corrupt activities of both William Mukanganise and officials at the Master of the High Court.
William further misrepresented to the Harare City Council’s Department of Housing that he was the only living son of Dorothy, yet Dorothy’s only remaining son was Cloud. It is noteworthy that Chioko was an elder brother to William’s father, Thomas Mukwasi Mukanganise, who also owned a property in Mbare (135 Vito Street).
In a bid to lay groundwork for the fraudulent acquisition of the house, William Mukanganise approached a Commissioner of Oath, Michael Chibamu Mapolisa of 3969 Nharira Norton, two weeks after the death of Dorothy in 2019 to fraudulently acquire a General Power of Attorney (See Annexure) purportedly signed by Dorothy, which was, however, backdated to 6 October 2015. The Power of Attorney purportedly authorised William to act on behalf of Dorothy in respect of number 166 Zata Street in Mbare. William was under the impression that the Power of Attorney is valid after the death of the principal, which is not the case. This means William could not legally and lawfully act on behalf of Dorothy.
On 31 March 2022, L Musundire, representing the Master of the High Court, wrote to William Mukanganise advising him that he had been authorised to administer and distribute the estate of the late Dorothy Mukanganise. Annexure shows the Certificate of Authority from Musundire. The letter further empowered William to effect transfer of House number 166 Zata Street into his name. This transfer was fraudulently made.
Corruption is evident when the Municipality on 8 April 2022, approved an agreement purportedly entered into between Dorothy and William Mukanganise, in which William claimed to have bought the house on 1 September 2018, exactly a year before Dorothy’s death. In in the memorandum of agreement and assignment, it is claimed that William had outrightly purchased Dorothy’s house from the Harare City Council before Dorothy died (See Annexure). The document, which was drafted by FE Mutsembi (63-1198743 P 45) on behalf of the Director of Housing, was signed by the following witnesses, S Chikwira (45-234885 C 45), TM Siziba (63-1616452 W 03) and Tanya A Jeche (63-2111996 E 43). There is need to interrogate these witnesses as well as Mutsembi to get to the bottom of the matter.
The claim that William purchased the house from Council is blatantly false because the house was bought by Dorothy using rent from a tenant who was using three rooms, while Diana was using one room. When the council wrote to Dorothy indicating that they were selling Council houses to the occupants so that they could acquire title deeds, a payment arrangement was made with council to settle the required eleven thousand dollars (RTGS$ 11 000.00). The amount was successfully paid using money from rentals. It is William who collected rent from the tenant every month to pay for the house. Unfortunately, Dorothy died before transferring the house into her name. William, who never paid a cent for the house, then took advantage of Dorothy’s death to claim that he was the one who bought the house from Council.
William subsequently received a letter dated 22 April 2022 from SB Sithole acting on behalf of the Director of Housing and Community Services approving the cession of the property from the late Dorothy Mukanganise on 20 May 2022 (See Annexure). The letter further instructed him to take his identity document to Mbare District Office so that the property could be transferred into his name. After changing the property into his name, William acquired title deeds and subsequently sold the house.
It is noteworthy that in the documents in the custody of the Department of housing, William lied that Dorothy was buried at Bidi Kraal under Chief Samuriwo, instead of Mhizha Village, her place of residence (See Annexure). This was meant to legitimise his claim that he was the only surviving son of Dorothy.
Meanwhile, there is simmering tension between William and his siblings over the former’s decision to sell the family house (135 Vito Street, Mbare, National). William is adamant that he is going to sell the house. He is boasting that nothing will stop him from selling the house because nothing happened to him when he sold Dorothy Mukanganise’s house.
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