Harare mayor Mafume, town clerk accused of illegally pocketing prime land at the City Council’s expense
By Darlington Gatsi
HARARE Mayor Jacob Mafume and senior City Council officials were awarded stands unprocedurily and cost the municipality much-needed revenue, it has emerged.
The rot in Harare City Council continues to surface as the Commission of Inquiry investigates operations at Town House over the past five years.
Senior Council officials, including Mafume and town clerk Hosiah Chisango, were allocated stands under questionable circumstances.
Harare City Council engineer Zvenyika Chawatama was reportedly allocated a stand in Greystone Park for US$55 000 which is significantly below its value of US$146 000.
Chisango was reportedly allocated a stand in Greystone Park for US$50 000.
Additionally, an unvalued piece of land in Mt Pleasant was also allocated to Mafume.
Appearing before the Commission of Inquiry, Harare City Council Committee chairperson on housing, health, education and licensing Blessing Muroiwa professed ignorance on the allocation of stands.
“We give the housing director the authority…. We did not sanction that. We did not receive reports about that.
“I am not sure how it was designed but from the commercial stands they give a list of the people they have given leases but from the housing, they do not give us a breakdown of houses they allocated,” said Muroiwa.
When pressed on the process used to allocate Mafume a stand, Muroiwa replied, “According to our housing policy there is nowhere that states that we must receive a breakdown on who has been allocated stands.”
Harare City Council officials are under fire for irregular allocation of stands which has shortchanged the local authority which gets revenue from the land.
The Mafume-led Council faces numerous allegations of corruption and cronyism in its land allocation.
Interestingly, Mafume recently gifted musician Enock “Nox” Guni a residential stand in Mt Pleasant as a reward for his strides in his musical journey.
Chisango’s assets have since been seized by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) under suspicions that they were acquired through corruption.
