Tendai Kamhungira 
ZIMBABWE’S Deposit Protection Corporation (DPC) says it has regained control of closed Interfin Bank (Interfin) after a tussle with businessman Jayesh Shah’s Al Shams Global (Al Shams).
This comes as the Supreme Court (SC) in February reversed Al Shams’s 2016 High Court win, and also directing the benighted bank to repay $26 million for contracts signed between 2011 and 2012.
“On the back of the judgment, the liquidator has commenced the legal processes of recovering all the funds and securities that were paid directly or ceded to Al Shams..,” Vusisizwe Vuma, the DPC chief executive, told The Financial Gazette this week.
“DPC was appointed liquidator of Interfin … and since then the bank has been under the control of the liquidator in accordance with the insolvency laws,” he said, adding they “have redirected all debt repayments to the bank and will pursue all debtors to protect the depositors”.
The DPC, which was then headed by John Chikura and the lead appellant under the current case, had taken Shah’s company to the superior court and after Justice Rita Makarau ruled the High Court had misdirected itself in ruling in Al Shams’ favour.
“The application a quo (High Court) was not against the appellants (Chikura and DPC) in their personal capacities. It was against the bank (Interfin) in liquidation,” she said.
“It sought to compel the second appellant (DPC) to perform under the two agreements that the respondent (Al Shams) had with the bank as if it was the bank. Such proceedings ought to have been with the leave of court,” Makarau added.
“In the result, I make the following order: the appeal is allowed with costs, the judgment of the court a quo is set aside and is substituted with the following: the application is dismissed with costs,” the experienced benchwoman said.
In the meantime, the tussle between the DPC and Al Shams had arisen from agreements for bankers acceptances worth millions and as part of a liquidity support structure.
“As security that the respondent (Al Shams) would recover… the bank ceded to it the agreements and rights… against debtors..,” the court heard at the time.
It was a further said that securitities and contracts given to the Indian financier’s company would be reassigned to Interfin upon repayment of all amounts due to Shah’s company. The bank was also supposed to provide information or documents relating to the security held in respect of the advance.
However, the bank was placed under curatorship by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in June 2012, leading to the appointment of a curator and the Shah agreements coming under the spotlight.
“He agreed to be bound by the terms of the agreements. Up to the time when his curatorship ended in December 2014, the curator collected some of the debts on behalf of the bank and remitted these to the respondent in accordance with the terms of the two agreements,” the SC noted.
In 2015, Interfin was placed under final liquidation and DPC was appointed as the liquidator and the agreements were also brought to Chikura’s attention.
However, he did not respond to the issues, resulting in Al Shams approaching the High Court, seeking recourse. DPC opposed the application before filing a counterclaim, seeking to set aside the agreements and that Al Shams pays back all the funds received from the curator.
The High Court dismissed the counter application as well as the preliminary points that had been raised by DPC, resulting in the corporation filing the superior court appeal.
While the drama was playing out in the SC, a number of courageous depositors and clients of the defunct bank, including Equity Properties, took Shah’s foreign-domiciled firm to court — challenging its claim to their title deeds and moreso, in a scenario where they had repaid their loans.
