Fresh Details Show Millions Chivayo Still Owes Car Dealers and Why They May Count Losses

Car dealers in Harare say they are owed millions of dollars for vehicles already delivered to Zimbabwean tycoon Wicknell Chivayo, who reportedly died in a helicopter crash on September 30.

The Standard Zimbabwe reported on October 11 that the amounts outstanding run into millions across several showrooms combined.

Dealers who had come to rely on Chivayo as a steady buyer are now struggling to reconcile their books, with his estate and legal processes yet to settle the deals.

Chivayo, popularly known as Sir Wicknell, died in Marondera while travelling from his home in Chikomba district, Mashonaland East. His wife, Lucy Muteke, two pilots and an aide also perished.

He built a public image around lavish philanthropy, gifting luxury cars to musicians, lawyers, politicians, religious leaders and social media followers. He reportedly gave away more than 300 vehicles, although some accounts put the figure as high as 3,000 over two years. The cars and cash gifts were valued at about US$47 million (KSh 6.10 billion).

Beneficiaries were typically told to collect their cars from dealers because they were “fully paid.” His final posts on September 30 followed the same pattern, announcing top-of-the-range SUVs and US$250,000 in cash for each of two lawyers.

Much of the supply ran through Exquisite Car Sales in Harare, with distribution reportedly handled by a man known as Victor Matiyenga. Other vehicles came from showrooms along Robert Mugabe Road in Eastlea and in Braeside.

Toyota GD6 Fortuners, each valued at about US$70,000 (KSh 9 million), were in constant demand, alongside Toyota Aquas, Land Cruisers and Mercedes-Benz models. Dealers sometimes pooled stock to fill orders as large as 100 Aquas and 50 Fortuners at once, and payments usually arrived within two months.

That bulk buying created a secondary market in which dealers bought stock from one another, so the debt now spreads across Harare’s wider car trade.

Source; https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FrMkvXYsS/