DESPITE the fact that the economy is recovering, several high-flying indigenous businessmen have apparently fallen on the hard times.

In the past few weeks, scores of them have had their properties attached for failing to settle debts for money they borrowed to recapitalise their businesses.

Sources said the deputy sheriff recently had to stop the auctioning of several properties belonging to “renowned” businesspeople allegedly after pressure from senior government officials.

“There was an instruction to the deputy sheriff to stop all the sales at the last minute,” said one source. “Then the deputy sheriff also instructed the auctioneers to stop the auctioning.”

Efforts to get a comment from either Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere or chairman of the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment board David Chapfika were fruitless last week.

But officials at Ruby Auctions on Friday confirmed that they had received instructions to stop the auctioning of attached properties because most of it belonged to local indigenous businesspeople who are still struggling to stand on their own feet.

Efforts to get a comment from the deputy sheriff were unsuccessful.

Indigenous firms and people whose properties have been attached include TeleAccess boss Daniel Shumba, David Govere’s Harambe Holdings, Lobels (Pvt) Limited owned by a consortium of local business people as well as Jaggers wholesalers.

Jaggers, once one of the leading distributors of fast-moving consumer goods, was acquired by businessman and farmer Cecil Muderede.

Muderede gained a controlling equity of the wholesale giant after buying out the previous major shareholder, Metcash Africa, a South African company, through his investment vehicle Borlscade Investment (Pvt) Ltd.

By The Standard