Over the past few months, Impala Car Rental has been subjected to a sustained and spirited online media campaign that seeks to tarnish the image and reputation of the company.
Despite all the steps we have taken to facilitate investigations, the online media attacks continue, with the latest one being the blatantly false story that was published a few days ago by an online paper called The News Hawks.
This fictitious story, written by Owen Garare and Bridget Mananavire of The News Hawks is loaded with complete lies and falsehoods.
Below, I give a point by point account, exposing the litany of lies contained in the story by The News Hawks.
1) THE LIE – The story claims that Impala Car Rental is owned by state security service, the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) CORRECT POSITION – Impala Car Rental is a family business whose directors are Matirasa Francisca Dondo and Clara Dondo.
2) THE LIE – The story claims that Impala Car Rental is registered as Impala Carriers (Pvt) Ltd. CORRECT POSITION – Impala Car Rental is just a trading name for Synergy Harare Car Rental which is not linked in any way to Impala Carriers (Pvt) Ltd. The company registry of Zimbabwe does not allow registration of national heritage names hence there is no way this company Impala Carriers (Pvt) Ltd could have been registered.
3) THE LIE – The story claims that Impala is owned by Chilten Trust represented by Thompson Dondo. CORRECT POSITION – Impala Car Rental is a family business with no links to Chilten Trust and Thompson Dondo has no links whatsoever to Chilten Trust. Chilten Trust is not on any of Impala Car Rental’s company registration documentation.
4) THE LIE – The story claims that Impala Car Rental’s registration number is 2519/1989. CORRECT POSITION – Impala Car Rental’s registration number is 10861/2007.
5)THE LIE – The story claims that Thompson Dondo’s National Identity Number is 58-132451P-50. CORRECT POSITION – The National Identity Number of Kanganwirai Dondo who is known by many as Thompson Dondo is 18- 046010C-18.
6) THE LIE – The story claims that Thompson Dondo is from Mutasa District in Manicaland province. CORRECT POSITION – Thompson Dondo is from Chivhu in Mashonaland East province.
7) THE LIE – The story claims that Thompson Dondo is linked to a company called Gutlomn Trust located on the 7th Floor of Robinson House, Harare. CORRECT POSITION – Thompson Dondo is not linked in any way to Gutlomn Trust and has never operated from the 7th Floor, Robinson House, Harare.
8) THE LIE – The story claims that Impala was once represented by one Tendai Gunda. CORRECT POSITION – Impala Car Rental has never been represented by Tendai Gunda and no one at Impala Car Rental has ever worked or know any Tendai Gunda.
9) THE LIE – The story claims that Impala Car Rental was first registered in 1989. CORRECT POSITION – Synergy Harare Car Rental, trading as Impala Car Rental was registered on 5 April 2007.
10) THE LIE – The story claims that Gutlomn Trust acquired 15 900 shares in Impala. CORRECT POSITION – Gutlomn Trust has no shares in Impala Car Rental as the two shareholders are Matirasa Francisca Dondo and Clara Dondo.
11) THE LIE – Towards the end of all these lies, the journalists mention Synergy Harare Car Rental but still lied that Kanganwirai Dondo and Alfred Dondo are the other two directors in the company.
CORRECT POSITION – Synergy Harare Car Rental only has two directors – Matirasa Francisca Dondo and Clara Dondo. The facts regarding this matter were clear from the onset, but unfortunately, journalists with ulterior motives thought Impala Car Rental was the weak link they could abuse to push their own agendas.
If indeed, the journalists at The News Hawks had investigated the story for over two months, by now they would have known that on the 16th of November 2020 under Case Number 1892/20 at the High Court of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, Ncube Attorneys, the lawyers representing Tawanda Muchehiwa conceded that due to the fact that Tawanda Muchehiwa had fled the country, the provisional Anton Pillar Order should be dismissed.
In short, the case between Impala Car Rental and Tawanda Muchehiwa has collapsed. Furthermore, from our humble beginnings in 2007 we had only four vehicles, a clear testimony of how the company has grown over the years.
Impala Car Rental has now spread its tentacles into Southern Africa and beyond. Just like any other car rental business, Impala Car Rental has clients both in the public and private sectors and we feel that there is nothing unusual about this business model.
The evil machinations to tarnish the image of Impala Car Rental shall continue to be in vain and no amount of online media dirt can stop our growth because; “Whom God has Blessed Let No Man Curse.”
Thompson Dondo
CEO – Impala Car Rental
