Two African proverbs are usefully relevant to the Maphios Cheda Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of the Harare City Council.
The first, a Zimbabwean one, cautions against celebrating a witch hunter that will “catch your mother”.
The other says that when a hyena wants to eat its children, it accuses them of smelling like goats.
You need to be careful of things that appear good today, as there are those that clutch at any excuse to satisfy their own interests.
There is no doubt that the Cheda Commission has done a wonderful job so far in exposing the deep-seated rot at the capital’s municipality, from staggering embezzlement to brazen land and property grabs. But that’s where the good news will probably end.
Emerging reports indicate that the Harare municipality is likely to be placed under some sort of curatorship, superintended by the central government, once this controlled inquiry is done.
The drama and euphoria that came with the commission might have blinded many to the ultimate motive of the inquiry.
Yet, in hindsight, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if the government takes over the running of the council.
The Zanu PF government has always wanted to control and manipulate the capital’s city council, which has been dominated by the opposition since 2000, so any excuse would do.
And what better way to do that than to simulate the moral high ground, exposing corruption and bad governance, some kind of goat smell.
This would not be the first time that the government has wrested control of the city from the opposition.
There was a similar commission led by Sekesai Makwavarara that was established to manage Harare when, in 2006, the government dubiously ejected Elias Mudzuri and also did away with executive mayorship.
Stripping mayors of executive powers was a strategic move to weaken the opposition, which controlled most, if not all, urban councils.
It meant that real power in urban local authorities shifted to town clerks, who were mostly Zanu PF proxies, as mayors became ceremonial.
But people must get really scared if the government goes ahead and puts a tortoise on the Harare municipality post and calls it a commission.
Leaving everything in Zanu PF control, just as we saw during the Makwavarara era, will severely compromise accountability.
Just across Manyame Bridge, a self-proclaimed prophet with a shady history of morals, Walter Magaya, almost took control of the whole of Chitungwiza with the blessings of the central government without following procedure in a planned and clumsy 10-year “smart city” project.
Zanu PF-aligned actors routinely bypass opposition-run councils to secure dubious deals.
During July Moyo’s tenure as Local Government Minister, they wrested the Pomona dumpsite from the Harare municipality and gave it to a Zanu PF runner, Delish Nguwaya.
The list is too long.
The manner in which the Commission of Inquiry has been conducting itself has always given off a fishy smell.
You notice how the “prosecutors” have been asking leading questions and insisting on certain lines of questioning that are clearly meant to lead to predetermined findings and conclusions.
While Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume, an opposition figure, faces relentless scrutiny over a misstated home address and a US$1 million Ruwa property scandal, the role of Zanu PF elites in enabling illegal land parcelling remains conspicuously under-probed.
This selective exposure fuels suspicions that the Inquiry is less about accountability than undermining the current council. Equally concerning is the glaring gap between the Commission’s revelations and tangible consequences.