Shocking details emerge as opposition, council officials and Zanu PF loot Harare City Council

Moses Matenga

Harare—The City of Harare lost millions of dollars to a network of corrupt officials and politically connected cartels that have virtually taken over its cash-cow, Rufaro Marketing, investigations show.

Rufaro Marketing, a once-lucrative venture that financed crucial city projects, is a stark example of the rampant plunder, neglect, and corruption that has plagued Harare. 

Millions of dollars generated by this entity have disappeared, leaving a trail of mismanagement and unaccounted funds.

Investigations by the Business Times in conjunction with Information for Development Trust (IDT), a non-profit organisation helping journalists produce investigative stories on corruption and bad governance, have established that, taking advantage of leakages caused by porous council systems, the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party could also have benefited from the looted funds during the 2023 harmonised elections.

According to officials, Rufaro Marketing has been generating between $35,000 and $45,000 per month since 2022, totalling approximately $500,000 annually. 

However, there is no documentation to substantiate how these funds have been utilised.

Several critical documents, it emerged, have gone missing over the years, raising suspicion officials and cartels sold some of the Rufaro Marketing property and benefited from the proceeds. 

Cartels 

Investigations show that a cartel comprising both ruling Zanu PF party aligned activists, opposition senior officials, councillors and council officials are involved in the illegal letting and subletting of Rufaro Marketing facilities across the city.  

A visit to Zororo Bar in Mbare owned by Rufaro Marketing revealed a lot of underhand dealings and a complex web of dealers who “make it happen.”

Posing as a prospective tenant, this reporter engaged with officials from Rufaro Marketing offices at Remembrance House in Mbare in the capital.

According to one of the operators running a shop at Zororo Bar, it is difficult to go directly to Rufaro Marketing officials to facilitate a place to operate from, hence the involvement of “brokers”.

The operator said that, in order to facilitate “a discussion” there was need for “something”—meaning a bribe—for a dealer only identified as Maxwell who has links to a Rufaro Marketing official identified as Nyasha Jongwe.

Jongwe is employed as operations manager for the council-owned entity and is based at the Rufaro Marketing head office at Remembrance House.

After the visit, the reporter got several calls as follow ups to his interest on securing space to run a bar.

In one of the calls, the caller, one of the business owners at Zororo Bar outlet, was in the presence of Maxwell, whose full identity and role could not be immediately established.

In the recorded conversation, Maxwell kept on inquiring whether this reporter was serious and promised to facilitate a meeting with another official identified as Chikwariro, who described himself as a finance point person at Rufaro Marketing. 

But later, other council officials said he was a mere clerical employee. 

Business Times spoke to Chikwariro on the phone and presented to him allegations that he was part of a cartel fleecing Rufaro Marketing through financial malfeasance. 

He denied any wrongdoing saying his role was only to receive money. 

A visit to Chikwariro’ offices revealed the cartel’s modus operandi including a strict policy where nothing moves without money.

“My duty is simply to receive money,” Chikwariro said. “I don’t handle operations beyond the movement of money. There are others tasked with that. My responsibility is to manage financial transactions and make payments and I have been in this role for years,” he said.

In the recorded conversation, he, however, indicated that he only stepped in to facilitate property letting if the individuals in the operations department were not available. 

When first approached by our undercover news team, Chikwariro told us that we would get “something” if we paid a “commission” for a prime property. 

“There is nothing yet unless you’re willing to pay for a prime spot (Mbare and Highfields.) Rentals vary, but they remain fairly consistent across the high-density suburbs,” he said.  

Maxwell, who took the news team to Chikwariro said: “Are you truly serious about this opportunity? If you are interested in this area, you need to pay a fee that we can negotiate among ourselves.”  

It emerged these front dealers were not only there to facilitate acquisition of facilities at Rufaro Marketing but formed part of a larger scheme to also operate shady property transfers from Remembrance House, which also houses the City of Harare Housing Department. 

The cartel, it was established, also manipulates the city’s house waiting list by backdating home-seeker cards for a bribe. 

Several offices at Remembrance are involved in this, complete with the stations which date-stamp the forged documents. 

It also emerged during this investigation that former Mbare constituency Member of Parliament, Starman Chamisa, brother to former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader, Nelson Chamisa, was pushing to take over control of Zororo Bar using his political muscle.

This publication spoke to some of the people that made these claims and they said the legislator was using CCC councillors and his own influence in Mbare to wrestle out some tenants renting facilities at Zororo Bar.

Starman Chamisa, however, refused to respond to the allegations saying: “I don’t have time for interviews. I will respond when it’s convenient for me.” 

Zororo Bar is now home to a private college with classes from ECD to Advanced Level. 

Sources said the school pays more than US$1,000 in monthly rentals to Rufaro Marketing through Chikwariro.

Those who operate some of the businesses were initially hesitant to entertain the news team. 

Said one of them: “A lot of investigations are happening. That’s why I can’t assist you.” 

This was in apparent reference to the commission of inquiry set up by President Emmerson Mnangagwa that has exposed the Rufaro Marketing rot.

Last year, President Emmerson Mnangagwa set up the commission chaired by a retired judge, Mathias Cheda, to probe suspected cases of financial mismanagement at the municipality since 2017.

The commission has so far received testimonies from numerous actors within the local authority, all pointing to massive looting of council funds that must have been accruing to the local authority from property rentals.

Nelson Chamisa, the popular opposition figure whose former party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), contributed the majority of councillors to the municipality has also appeared before the commission.

He distanced himself from corrupt council officials and denied that he facilitated the irregular transfer of hundreds of residential stands to woo urban voters ahead of the 2023 general elections. 

This investigation also led this reporter to another Rufaro Marketing facility in Mabvuku called Hunters. 

 

Numerous individuals have benefitted from the rental chaos at this outlet.

Mabvuku Ward 21 councillor, Alexio Nyakudya, is said to be one of the beneficiaries. Nyakudya is running Hunters bar.

 

An employee we spoke to at the facility mentioned Jongwe, whose name also featured prominently in Mbare, as the man to see if one wanted Rufaro deals. 

The employee, a bartender, said they paid US$1000 monthly rent to Rufaro Marketing through Jongwe.

He said in Mabvuku, those who wanted space could talk to a local businessman identified only as Mannex. 

Investigations established that Mannex runs a number of tuck shops in the area. 

The news team went to see Mannex who expressed eagerness to assist, saying his close relationship with Jongwe made everything easy.

Mannex refused to disclose his real and full names. Those who know him insisted that that is the name he is known by. .

He said Rufaro Marketing had bars in Manresa, a middle density suburb in northern Harare, and that access to these facilities required “good financial backing”. 

He said rentals for grocery stores and beer outlets ranged between US$250 and US$350, depending on the size of the property. There were 20 of them and that brought the cumulative rental to US$7 000 a month.

 

This money, the investigation established, is not remitted to council but is directed to members of the cartel that involves officials from Remembrance House in Mbare and their runners. 

Missing records fuel looting suspicion 

According to a report by a special committee on the operations of Rufaro Marketing in 2019, critical documents including minutes of annual general meetings and extraordinary meetings were missing, hence there was no clear picture of the state of affairs at the company, raising suspicion of looting and concealment of illegal activities. 

“The committee was not favoured with minutes of any AGM or EGM of Rufaro Marketing over the years especially for the years leading to the decision to liquidate the company in September 2012, and the years following the decision to liquidate the company. A failure to hold the mandatory AGMs would be in violation of the Articles of Association of the company and the Companies Act (Chapter 24 :03),” the report reads in part. 

The committee was also not provided with any minutes of meetings of the previous boards.

Former Rufaro Marketing chief executive, Daniel Mutiwadirwa, confirmed the chaotic records system amid accusations and counter-accusations.

“They destroyed documents,” Mutiwadirwa said. “They claim I have documents but they communicated my suspension electronically. So how could I have taken those documents? The chaos was designed to create grounds for looting,” he said. 

Among the missing documents were lease agreements between Rufaro Marketing and tenants, making it difficult to establish how much rent was being remitted. 

This investigation discovered that, while rentals were being paid exclusively in US dollars, the little amount that was purported to be given to Rufaro Marketing was in the local currency changed on the black market. 

The Harare mayor, Jacob Mafume, confirmed the missing documents but put the blame on Mutiwadirwa.

“There was no record of Rufaro Marketing. He (Mutiwadirwa) conspired to sell three bars and he was stopped.”

CCC election funding claims 

Mutiwadirwa claimed he fell out of favour with the opposition-dominated council because he resisted moves to fund the August 2023 harmonised election campaign for the Nelson Chamisa-led opposition party. 

“They were saying CCC doesn’t have money and needed money for elections,” he said.

“I was introduced to CCC leaders and had meetings with so many of them, including Amos Chibaya (interim organising secretary), and what was left was for me to meet their (former) party president (Nelson Chamisa) but I resisted,” he said.

Chibaya, however, denied ever meeting Mutiwadirwa. 

“After one of the meetings, Mafume was angry. He said he wanted the Rufaro Machipisa outlet. He forced me to find escape clauses to do away with a person who was there,” the former CEO said. 

 “They warned I could only remain CEO if I complied with their demands.”

Mafume denied the allegations. 

“I met him (Mutiwadirwa) once or twice the entire time. How could a non-performing company finance anything?” he asked.

But Mutiwadirwa insisted that he was forced out to pave way for well-known opposition fundraisers, Juma Ulete and Ngoni Chimbalu, who are now full-time directors at Rufaro Marketing.

A quick background search on the two shows that they have over the years been at the forefront of mobilising resources for opposition campaigns, with one major one being the purchase of a bulletproof vehicle for Chamisa. 

The funds remain marred in controversy as no vehicle was delivered. 

Ulete and Chimbalu are known opposition functionaries who have been active in fundraising for the party since the days of the late former MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai. 

Chimbalu and Ulete were also named at the commission’s inquiry, with chairperson Cheda accusing them of creating looting avenues that also involve councillors and officials who are reportedly running businesses at the Rufaro Marketing facilities. 

“The two directors are running the company and there is no corporate governance because a non-executive is taking over an executive role,” he said.

Chimbalu declined to comment on the accusations.

Justice Cheda also claimed Rufaro Marketing was mobilising funds for the CCC party.

“The money is going into their own pockets. Since 2022, there are no remittances that have been paid,” Justice Cheda said. “They are not meeting the responsibilities of council.”

“We have a video of Hunters Bar and we are going to show you how these bars have dilapidated alongside Kuwadzana shopping centres and the 30 tuckshops that you have leased in your names,” he was quoted as saying during the inquiries.

Mafume skirted the question on why he appointed board members to executive positions against principles of corporate governance.

“What did the former CEO (Mutiwadirwa) do? (With Ulete), it has been from zero to refurbishing Rufaro Marketing headquarters. Rufaro Stadium was also refurbished using proceeds from Rufaro Marketing,” he said. 

Mafume confirmed that Rufaro Marketing assets had been taken over by cartels. 

“They (new management) are actually doing far better than the previous CEO but they are facing resistance from tenants who have turned bars into tuckshops, using political muscle and influence. Some are refusing to pay rentals,” he said. 

Documents gleaned as part of the investigations that include a 2019 audit committee report showed that most of the facilities were in dire need of maintenance as they have lost shape. 

The documents at hand supported by observations show that all facilities are in a state of disrepair. 

The report shows “significant underutilisation” of the vast land housing the Rufaro Marketing outlets. 

Incidences of land invasions were also noticed at Hunters Tavern in Mabvuku, according to the report by the committee.

“The committee noticed underutilisation of the vast land housing the outlets. Sub economic rentals are being charged as the committee noticed that stalls were being sublet for at least US$60 each while Rufaro Marketing is paid an average of Rtgs$3000per outlet. Eleven stalls averaging USD$660 at Hunters in Mabvuku are being sublet by a Rufaro Marketing tenant. 

“Rufaro Marketing receives a meagre 3000rtgs (US$250) which is the equivalent of just 2 stalls. The committee noted that more value can be unlocked out of the properties. 

“In addition, the rampant subletting, which does not benefit Rufaro Marketing, must be stopped, even if it means considering having direct relationships with the sub-lessees,” reads the report.  

Despite the recommendations, investigations have established that the subletting still continues. 

Documents show that cases of subletting involving political actors is rampant.

Some of the tenants who have been given leases unprocedurally are taking advantage of lack of accountability to modify Rufaro Marketing properties. 

Recently TN Holdings, Rufaro Marketing and a Zanu PF senior official, Emmanuel Mahachi, fought in court after the latter destroyed and reshaped council facilities at Vito Complex in Mbare into tuck shops for subletting.

“It is declared that the respondent does not have any authority to sub-lease Vito Complex, construct and build tuck-shops, modify or demolish the existing and approved buildings comprising Vito Complex,” the ruling reads in part.

The court ordered the demolition of the additional or revamped structures. 

Vito Complex is a Rufaro Marketing facility in the populous Mbare suburb and has been the battleground for fights over control by space barons. 

Despite the court order, Zanu PF elements continue operating from Vito Complex and recently, lawmakers from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chaired by Kuwadzana Member of Parliament, Chalton Hwende, were forced to abort a fact finding mission in Mbare at the complex after they were mobbed by Zanu PF activists with one of them brandishing a firearm.

Rufaro Marketing board chair, Warren Chiwawa, confirmed some political elements were giving the company hell but warned that action would be taken.

“We have politicians occupying some of our properties but we have impressed upon the politicians that this is not politics but commerce so we should have a win-win situation,” Chiwawa said.

“There has been resistance from politicians but I think some of them are now coming to the realisation that it is in their best interest to work with us because if they resist us on the basis of politics, we will simply take them to court and evict them,” he added.  

Residents speak on Rufaro Marketing drama 

Reuben Akili, Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) director, said: “Over the years, you actually see that there hasn’t been meaningful contribution from Rufaro Marketing remittances to the revenue inflows for the local authority,” Akili said. 

“Rufaro Marketing would in the past finance council-run infectious diseases hospitals in terms of rehabilitation and would even contribute to social amenities, rehabilitation of key infrastructure but you realise that, because there have been no remittances, this has seriously impacted on the conditions of our social services,” Akili said. 

“If you go to Tafara, the situation is unacceptable. If you go to Mufakose, all those social services, they are collapsing. Even if you go to Gwanzura Stadium, it’s collapsing. Funds from Rufaro Marketing were contributing towards the development of such infrastructure and even social services,” he added. 

He said an audit on Rufaro Marketing was critical.

“Some facilities were sold under unclear circumstances which qualifies as fraud because it remains public property. We feel that the local authority has been prejudiced of millions of dollars,” he said.

Deteriorating infrastructure 

Observations show that a number of facilities have been run down.

Documents also support the collapsing infrastructure.

In Mbare, the facilities including Vito Complex are now an eyesore with unplanned tuckshops where officials also suspect are the hub of drug peddling. 

In Highfields, high human traffic is raising fears of disease outbreaks because the ablution facilities are mostly malfunctioning.  

A committee set up in 2019 to probe the Rufaro Marketing case and was chaired by Ian Makone, a former opposition funder, revealed gross irregularities that included opaque selling of facilities and missing funds.

“In his verbal submission to the committee the Acting Finance Director revealed outlets at Chitubu, Nenyere and Island Bar had been sold based on an internal valuation. 

“Authority for the sale was not confirmed. The committee considers that, in line with its overall findings, better candidates for disposal would have been Vito Red Room in Mbare and Gazaland,” the report reads in part.