Mbada Diamonds Ex-Boss at Centre of Forgery-Driven Bid to Seize Former Son-in-Law’s Property

HARARE – Former Mbada Diamonds executive Robert Mhlanga (pictured) is at the centre of a growing legal storm after documents filed in the High Court in an attempt to seize his former son-in-law’s property were disavowed by the law firm that handled the original transaction and contradicted by official Companies Registry records. The documents purport to remove Kingsley Khumalo as a director of Avara Investments (Private) Limited, the company that owns the property, and to replace him with Terence Tembo and Godfrey Mumba. It has since emerged that Tembo and Mumba are, in fact, Mhlanga’s gardeners.

The filings rely on corporate resolutions and registry forms that, on their face, conflict with contemporaneous registry data and written confirmation from the conveyancing firm responsible for the original transfer, pointing to what legal practitioners describe as a forgery-driven attempt at dispossession. Property Purchased Through Shelf Company The property was acquired in 2011 through a shelf company supplied solely for the purpose of holding the asset. Corporate records from that period list Khumalo and his then-wife Patience Khumalo as the only directors and shareholders of Avara Investments.

That position is confirmed in a letter dated 28 August 2020 from the law firm that handled the conveyancing. “We dealt with Mr Kingsley Khumalo and Mrs Patience Khumalo in connection with the acquisition of the property,” the firm wrote. “The shelf company was made available for the purpose of purchasing the property and its transfer.

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We confirm that neither this firm nor any third party has any interest in Avara Investments (Private) Limited or its assets.” The correspondence makes no reference to Mhlanga as a purchaser, lender, or beneficiary and advises that any disputes should be addressed to the company’s shareholders — identified in the firm’s records as the Khumalos. Despite this, court papers filed in later proceedings purport to show that both Khumalos were removed as directors in October 2020 and replaced by Tembo and Mumba. No share certificates, allotment resolutions, or transfer instruments supporting their appointment accompany the filings.

The documents nonetheless depict the two men acting as directors with authority to remove existing directors and initiate eviction proceedings. There is no indication in any corporate records reviewed by this publication that either Tembo or Mumba had any ownership interest in Avara Investments or any corporate role prior to their sudden appearance in the filings. In 2021, Tembo and Mumba wrote to Khumalo demanding that he vacate the property.

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