Johannesburg - A South Africa based Zimbabwean businessman has been cleared of any wrongdoing in his country after a probe by the Attorney General’s (AG) office into multiple complaints found that he only took over properties belonging to people who owed him money and had defaulted on agreed repayments.
The AG’s announcement has cleared up a cloud of suspicion that had been hanging over Frank Buyanga who had been accused of fraud by defaulting clients.
Buyanga’s money-lending business in Zimbabwe has experienced problems with government and defaulting clients.
Borrowers secured their loans with their homes.
However, some defaulters refused to give up their houses, leading to litigation.
But on Friday, the AG’s office said the businessman had been correct in enforcing terms of the loan agreement.
In a statement, widely reported in Zimbabwe media, the AG’s office said: “A few years ago we carried out some investigations on him but we discovered that these people who had approached our offices had borrowed money from Mr Buyanga and were only trying to find a way of not paying him back the money.
“We even went to the extent of denying to prosecute him since there was no case against him. Mr Buyanga is, however, not blacklisted from making property transfers. There is nothing like that.”
On Thursday, a registrar from the Deeds Office testified in court that Buyanga, who has been again wrongly accused of an alleged fraudulent house sale, was, in fact, the legal property owner of the property.
Buyanga has an impressive property portfolio with over 500 houses in Zimbabwe and South Africa.