Wicknell Chivayo, the flamboyant Zimbabwean business tycoon who died in a helicopter crash, had not completed payment for his upmarket mansion in Harare’s Gletwyn suburb at the time of his death. Fresh details showed that Wicknell Chivayo had not completed paying for his huge mansion. Photo: Sir Wicknell. Source: Facebook According to a report by NewsHawks, the property, a Hollywood-style residence in the affluent area bordering Chishawasha Hills in northeastern Harare, belonged to former police commissioner Augustine Chihuri. Chivayo paid US$1.4 million towards the house in May 2024, against an agreed sale price of US$2.5 million, leaving an outstanding balance of US$1.1 million. Wicknell Chivayo house deal built on “political services” What makes the transaction particularly complicated is that the remaining balance was never intended to be settled in cash. According to a source closely involved in the deal, Chivayo and Chihuri agreed that the shortfall would be covered through political services, an arrangement that was never formally documented.
“How do you put a monetary value to political services when one of the parties to the deal is no longer alive?” the source said, adding that the agreement carried serious valuation challenges from the outset. Those political services reportedly centred on easing tensions between Chihuri and President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a relationship that had soured significantly around the November 2017 military coup. Chihuri, a loyalist of former president Robert Mugabe, allegedly attempted to deploy the police to resist the takeover. After the coup succeeded, he fled to Malawi as Mugabe’s allies dispersed. The Zimbabwean government subsequently moved against Chihuri’s assets, initiating legal proceedings in 2020 to confiscate an estimated US$32 million in property and assets, including the Gletwyn mansion, on allegations that he had siphoned public funds across his 25 years heading the police force.
Wicknell Chivayo’s house legal ownership was never transferred Under Zimbabwean law, specifically the Deeds Registries Act, moving into a property does not confer ownership. A full conveyancing process is required, covering title searches, capital gains tax settlement with ZIMRA, transfer fees, stamp duty, rates clearance certificates and formal registration at the Deeds Registry before legal ownership passes to the buyer. None of that process was completed. A second layer of complexity arises from a significant valuation gap: while Chihuri sold the property for US$2.5 million, Zimbabwe’s official valuation placed it at US$7 million, a discrepancy of US$4.5 million that the source described as a fundamental problem in the arrangement. “In the end, Chihuri still holds the keys to Chivayo’s mansion,” the source said, noting that the former police boss now faces the unenviable task of deciding what happens to the property, given that the man who was supposed to settle the balance is dead. Wicknell Chivayo marriage to wife emerges
In other news, TUKO also highlighted facts about Wicknell Chivayo and Lucy Muteke, whose lives ended in a helicopter crash near Marondera, Zimbabwe, with four other people on board. The couple had married just 15 months earlier, after Chivayo’s bitter and unresolved separation from his first partner, Sonja Madzikanda. Their two young children were not on the aircraft. Proofreading by Jackson Otukho, copy editor at TUKO.co.ke.
