By Pieter Ziegler
In 2024, WestProp turned over $30m after selling 1,300 properties in the last five years.
Their goal, according to Africa Business (AB), is to sell 20,000 properties on land the company already owns and to lay a billion bricks in Zimbabwe by 2050.
In November 2024, the company reached the 80m brick mark; 8% of the target.
Sitting on top of it all is Ken Sharpe, worth an estimated $600m according to AB.
However, Sharpe’s rise to the top has been built on suspicious activities, which have been constantly supported by court victories.
The streak of court victories is so long and consistent it has begun to turn heads.
One unique factor is how most of the victories are premised on technicalities.
He has fashioned the tactic so well that some hefty cases against him have fallen on preliminary points.
Fatal Point In Limine
In 2021 Allan Markham, then Harare North MP went to court against a suspicious land deal between Harare Council and Sharpe.
Markham wanted the deal, allegedly forced through by then Local Government Minister July Moyo reversed.
He argued that it was not only illegal but a “grand theft” of land belonging to the people of Zimbabwe.
The deal involved 273 hectares of prime land in Harare’s affluent area of Pomona.
Though the land is worth US$205 million, it was allegedly undervalued to a mere US$20 million.
Court papers filed in March 2021 showed that a secret Deed of Settlement was executed in 2018, at the behest of Moyo.
The Minister also also claimed he had Mnangagwa’s authority.
However, the case was dismissed by Justice David Mangota who concurred with Tawanda Zhuwarara, Sharpe’s lawyer, that the applicants had no authority to sue the respondents.
“The respondents succeed in all three in limine matters which they raised.
“They showed that the application which sued the President without leave of the court is fatally defective and cannot therefore stand.
“They showed that the applicants lacked the locus standi to sue the respondents and that the suit brought against them was fraught with material disputes.
Sharpe vs Katsimberis
In 2023 Sharpe won another epic legal battle against property developer George Katsimberis.
The legal battle between Katsimberis and Ken Sharpe was due to a collapsed joint venture deal.
Katsimberis and Sharpe, through his company Pokugara Estates, entered into a joint venture agreement to form a company, Pokugara Ecofriendly Estates.
Sharpe, according to the agreement, was supposed to provide land while Katsimberis was to provide finances for the project.
After Katsimberis parted ways with US$883 728 -28 towards the development of stand 19559 into 21 stands, Sharpe allegedly cancelled the agreement claiming it was a legal nullity because his company was called Pokugara Properties, not Pokugara Estates.
After years of tussling the National Prosecuting Authority dropped the charges.
This led to Katsimberis to make a High Court application seeking a private prosecution certificate to pursue fraud charges against Sharpe.
He reported the case to the police under case number CRB CR 246-11-18 (CCD Ref DR 117-11-18).
Still, the prosecutor general has been refusing to prosecute Sharpe.
Homeless People Court Challenge
The Zimbabwe Homeless People Federation (ZHPF) also tried the legal route in their fight against Sharpe and came short in 2022.
The group comprising Knowledge Tinashe Kwambana and former Harare Councillor Warship Dumba sued Harare and Sharpe’s company Augur Investment demanding the reversal of a land deal.
Under the suspicious deal Council entered into a land and development joint venture with Augur Investments in 2007.
Augur was allocated 70 percent of the shares with Council getting 30 percent in the joint company called Sunshine Development (Pvt) Ltd.
However, the applicants wanted the arrangement nullified as it was grossly unfair towards Council and residents.
Unfortunately, the case was decided on preliminary points!
Justice David Mangota ruled that the federation had no legal footing to sue.
Secondly, the Court said, their claim raised material disputes of fact, which at law could not be resolved on papers.
So they had chosen the wrong sort of civil procedure.
The applicants were also accused of making the application way after the deadline for such suits.
For a deal signed in 2007 the year of deadline was was 2010.
Dramatic Tactics
In 2022 police arrested a key witness to a case where Sharpe was accused of perjury and malicious injury to property.
The witness, Roy Nyabvure was Harare City Council’s regional building instructor.
Prior to the case, Nyabvure told Magistrate Chakanyuka that he was being threatened by the police.
“I have a problem of being misdirected (and) of being interfered with by the police,” he said.
“I am being threatened and undermined.”
As the court adjourned, two police officers that had been waiting outside pounced on Nyabvure.
Interestingly, Magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka had complained about how Sharpe had too many applications for the case to be postponed.
In 2024 the Constitutional Court trashed an application by Fairclot Investments.
Fairclot sought to challenge the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding an appeal by Sharpe against the attachment of his upmarket Pomona City prime land to settle a debt.
Fairclot had filed an application seeking an order for direct access to the Constitutional Court.
If direct access was granted, Fairclot intended to file an application seeking a declaration that its rights to the protection of the law and a fair hearing had been infringed.
This followed a ruling by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe when it ruled in favour on Sharpe and his company Doorex Properties (Private) Limited in 2023.
However, the Constitutional Court dismissed the application ruling that the decision by the Supreme Court was on a non-constitutional issue.
“It has not been demonstrated that the Court violated the applicant’s rights under s 56 (1) and 69 (2).
That was the death of the case.
This week Westprop was in the news again after another escapade involving a bribe scam that turned into an extortionate scheme and has one culprit arrested and another wanted by the police.
In all this Sharpe is on the winning side!
