MUTARE–A local residents association has appealed to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption (ZACC) to institute investigations against the MDC Alliance led Mutare City Council for illegal allocation of stands.
United Mutare Residents and Ratepayers Trusts (UMRRT) made this appeal following whistleblower revelations that councilors led by Mayor Blessing Tandi, have allocated themselves extra stands contrary to government policy.
According to the Urban Councils regulations, an elected councilor is only eligible to acquire one residential stand, on condition of 40% payment of the stand’s purchase price.
The Urban Councils’ directive provide that this allocation is made only during first tenure of office and if a councilor is elected for a second term, they will not be allocated another stand, either in part of full payment.
However, corrupt retained councilors, some on their third terms, were recently parceled pieces of stands in the plush and affluent suburb of Murambi following a resolution from a Housing and Community Services Department meeting held recently.
According to insiders, this meeting resolved to allocate the stands to both incoming and retained councilors, despite the city’s housing waiting list standing at over 50 000 people.
Concerned Mutare residents now want the mask peeled off to reveal the massive face of corruption at Mutare City, saying they are increasingly becoming impatient at the alleged endless looting.
United Mutare Residents Ratepayers’ Trust (UMRRT) programmes manager Edison Dube said corruption at council was unsustainable calling for the anti-corruption unit ZACC, to investigate and prosecute offenders.
“The looting has to come to an end. If it’s true, then it means the town clerk has never shown any seriousness in the fight against corruption.
“As residents, we wonder where the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission is in all this. We must start witnessing some arrests. We will surely start filing formal reports to the relevant authorities,” said Dube.
In his response to these allegations Mutare Mayor Blessing Tandi, who is allegedly one of the beneficiaries, said he was not aware of the allocation of the stands to any retained councilor.
“Yes, we offered our first time councilors stands as provided for by the by-laws. I am not sure whether there was a second term councilor who got the land.
“Our administration is open, and I think the council spokesperson may be ideal person to approach with regards to the names, if any, on who got residential land,” Tandi said.
Auditor General Mildred Chiri in a 2018 Urban Councils and Local Authorities report also exposed these land shenanigans, before the current municipality’s tenure, while successive Ministers of Provincial Affairs have sighted the same land scams.
Manditawepi Chimene was the most local of the provincial ministers, publicly exposing one of the known land barons linked to council openly boast of their connections, when an audit report on land was released.
The forensic land audit conducted by the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing was released in 2015 by then Minister Savior Kasukuwere, revealed that some councilors acquired commercial and residential stands for free.
