A 41-YEAR-OLD Bindura businesswoman was yesterday dragged to court for allegedly swindling Harare City Council of $800 000 in a botched deal involving acquisition of parking equipment.

The accused, Mary Mapetese Masunda, was granted $500 bail by Harare magistrate, Barbara Chimboza and remanded to May 31. Masunda is the director of Shelstein Enterprises, whose subsidiary, Parkrite (Pvt) Ltd, provides parking management systems.

It is the State’s case that on August 18, 2014, Shelstein entered into a joint venture agreement with City Parking after it had misrepresented to the City of Harare that it was the sole distributor and franchise in Southern Africa for Parx Global Limited, an Israeli company involved in the manufacture of parking equipment.

This was after City Parking, represented by its board chairperson and acting town clerk, Josephine Ncube, indicated that it was looking for parking equipment.

To facilitate the deal, Masunda and her alleged accomplices Simon Muzviyo and Qhawe Masunda allegedly instructed City Parking to deposit $800 000 into Shelstein Enterprises’ bank account as its capital contribution to the joint venture. Acting on the alleged misrepresentation, City Parking transferred $800 000 into Shelstein Enterprises’ ZB Bank account.

Soon after the money reflected in the account, the accused allegedly withdrew it and converted it to their own use, prejudicing City Parking of $800 000.