Building Society wants kitchen fittings from businessman

MBABANE - Swaziland Building Society has filed an application at the High Court against a Manzini businessman for allegedly destroying its kitchen.

The businessman, Sibongiseni Fundzile Xaba, who conducts his business at a place called Gifties Shop in Manzini, entered into an agreement with the bank whereby he rented a house belonging to the bank. He is yet to respond to the application.
The house is situated at Fairview Township in Manzini. The duration of the agreement was from July 17, 2009 to May 31, 2010.

According to the agreement, Xaba was to pay E2 500 monthly rental on the first day of every month and after the expiry of the lease, Xaba agreed to buy the house from the bank by June 2010. The bank states that on June 2, 2010, it sent its building inspector, Mcebo Matsebula, to inspect the house before it was sold to Xaba.
However, when he arrived at the house, Matsebula claims that he discovered that the house was unsellable as all the kitchen fittings had been removed allegedly by Xaba. The bank states that it cannot perfect the sale of the house to any buyer without the kitchen fittings which are missing.

The bank therefore wants Xaba to return all the missing kitchen fittings which he allegedly unlawfully removed as he was the one in occupation of the house since July 17, 2009.
Alternatively, the bank wants the court to issue an order directing Xaba to compensate it for all necessary expenses it would incur when buying the missing fittings and hiring a person to install them.

The matter appeared before Justice Nkululeko Hlophe where the bank is represented by lawyer Sidumo Mdladla.