A Zimbabwean woman who stays in Botswana has been accused of squandering P2, 33 million sent to her by her British lover. Jeremy Rober...
A Zimbabwean woman who stays in Botswana has been accused
of squandering P2, 33 million sent to her by her British lover.
Jeremy Robertson (57) has now dragged his now ex-girlfriend
Simakahale Ndlovu, a naturalised Motswana from Zimbabwe as he tries to recoup
his money.
Robertson said he sent the money to Ndlovu for her to build
their dream home. He told a Francistown High Court judge that he first met
Ndlovu during a holiday to Zimbabwe with workmates in December 2010.
The Voice newspaper reports that the couple hit it off immediately and started a
long-distance relationship, with Robertson regularly travelling back to
Francistown over the next five years to see his lover.
“In 2012 we discussed building a house together and getting
married. However, I was unable to sell my property in London to finance the
project. I turned 55 in 2016 and cashed in both of my pensions. I sent the
money to her account in two batches, first I sent £50, 000 and later £17, 000
which added up to a little over P1 million,” said Robertson, adding that the
cash was specifically for the construction of the house.
He sold his house in September 2017 and transferred £100,
000 into his girlfriend’s account. It
was after this last deposit (worth about One-and-half-million Pula) that
Robertson noticed a change in Ndlovu’s attitude towards him.
“She didn’t update me on the project and when I talked to
her she became mono-syllabic; it became difficult to get information from her
until I decided to come to Francistown to find out what was going on”
The Briton said when he arrived in Botswana, his girlfriend
had just purchased a brand new Ford Ranger worth P440, 000. “She was cold.
There was no intimacy and she acted as if she wanted to get rid of me. It was
at that moment that I realised that the relationship was over.”
Robertson then reported the matter to the police as he was
worried his life savings had been misused.
The investigating officer Detective Boitumelo Nalebomo told
court that upon their investigations they discovered Ndlovu had lied to the
unsuspecting Robertson, falsely telling him that she owned a residential plot
in Tati Siding.
“There are no such records at Tati Landboard. In fact there
are only documents submitted for change of ownership and the purchase of the
plot. The defendant admitted in her statement that she used the money sent by
Robertson to purchase the plot, which is yet to be changed into her names as
she still has an outstanding balance,” revealed the Detective.
Nalebomo further stated that when they began their
investigation, Ndlovu’s bank account had a balance of P380, 000, which she was
ordered by court not to spend.
It was an order Ndlovu ignored, going on a spending spree
that left her account with just P1, 257.
The judge said “The defendant is precluded from advancing
any defence in the matter and against the applicant until she has restored the
sum of P380,000 into the bank account.”
On hearing this, Ndlovu, who had been sitting quietly on
one of the court’s front benches, promptly got up and left the room. She was
further interdicted and restrained from disposing of the Ford Ranger, and
ordered to park it at the applicant’s attorney’s office pending the judgement.
Ndlovu was also ordered to surrender title documents for
the Tati Siding plot and pay costs of the application on attorney.
The former couple are due back in court on 7 February 2019.
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