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Sheriffs of the High Court on Monday morning seized office furniture, computers and other assorted goods belonging to former president Bakili Muluzi’s Trade and Investment Bank (TIB).
The sheriffs removed desks, chairs, stools, computers, filing cabinets and printers before sealing off the offices that are housed in Delamere House in the commercial city Blantyre.
Nation Online visited Delamere house and found the sheriffs, with the assistance of an armed police man, loading the impounded property in a white Isuzu truck registration number BJ 5657, belonging to Ire Transport of Limbe.
High Court registrar Sylvester Kalembera said the owners of Delamere House, Delamere Properties Limited, filed an application to seize the bank’s property following its failure to pay K8 million ($74,074) in rental that have accumulated over an unspecified period of time.
“The court is aware of the case. It has to do with rentals that the Trade and Investment Bank owes Delamere Properties in excess of K8 million,” said Kalembera.
Kalembera said the case is in High Court pending hearing but said the offices have been sealed until the matter is resolved. He did not elaborate.
“I cannot give you all the details of the case because the document is with the assistant sheriff who went to seize the properties and seal the offices,” said Kalembera.
According to Kalembera, Muluzi has to pay the rentals within two weeks or the property will be put under the hammer.
Head of Sheriffs Peter Mlauzi said he did not know the value of the seized property because he had not seen the property by Monday evening but noted that it will be sold on auction if the bank does not settle the debt within 14 days.
But TIB legal advisor Atupele Muluzi described the action taken by Delamere Properties as unfortunate and said the landlord is claiming rentals from a space that was never occupied by TIB.
Muluzi said he was surprised that sheriffs stormed into the bank’s offices and swept them clean although there was no written agreement between the tenant and Delamere Properties for the space in contention..
Muluzi said former chief executive officer late Kalonga Stambuli verbally agreed with the landlord to rent more office space at the time the bank was expanding but said TIB never occupied the offices.
“The issue is beyond failure to pay rental. Delamere Properties agreed verbally with Kalonga Stambuli to lease more space and he got the keys but there was no written agreement and the bank did not occupy the offices.
“When they wrote me demanding the money for this space that we never occupied I refused but they threatened to take a drastic action against us. But I tried to mitigate the situation and offered to find a tenant to occupy the vacant offices but they could not take my calls, even their lawyer Mordecai Msiska was refusing to talk to me so you can see what they are hell bent on embarrassing us,” lamented Muluzi.
Muluzi said TIB owes Delamere Properties less than K8 million for the space it occupies in Delamere House since the bank has not paid its rent for January to April this year.
“ The money I know is less than K8 million because I refused to pay the rentals for the first quarter of this year amidst all this wrangle between us and our landlord,” said Muluzi.
Muluzi said he was consulting with his lawyers on the course of action the bank will take.
General manager for Delamere Properties was reported out of the country and the company’s accountant Leornard Chilongo refused to comment on the issue and referred this reporter to their lawyer Mordecai Msiska who refused to comment as well.
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