Nunurai Jena
Chinhoyi—A recent fraud conviction involving Chinhoyi deputy mayor, Chipo Mlotshwa, has unearthed a deeply entrenched culture of corruption and double allocation of stands in Mapako and Riverside low-density suburbs involving Chinhoyi municipality councillors and employees.
Regional magistrate Vakai Douglas Chikwekwe, while recently sentencing Mlotshwa to three years for fraudulently acquiring a residential stand, damned local authorities for turning into “a breeding ground for corruption”, a trend he said necessitated harsher penalties.
Mlotshwa’s sentence was commuted to 840 hours of community service.
But the conviction will see her lose her council seat since the Electoral Act provides for automatic expulsion of councillors and other elected office holders found guilty of a crime.
Investigations, however, exposed a far-reaching scandal involving the systematic double allocation of residential stands that are mostly repossessed properties that are fraudulently allocated to councillors.
These property transfers have been used by the municipality secretariat to bribe the councillors to approve irregular benefits such as steep salaries and other perks for senior management.
The rot can be traced back to 2008 when Nicholas Chiremba, a home seeker, was embroiled in a dispute after being double-allocated a stand in the Mapako low-density suburb alongside a Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) employee.
The former mayor, Dyke Makumbe, was subsequently implicated in the scandal, which was swept under the carpet by offering Chiremba another stand in the more upscale Riverside area, a common tactic used to bury the evidence of double allocations.
“It’s a well organised scheme where council officials and councillors connive to bypass policy by allocating stands to councillors in return for easy approval of unauthorised salary adjustments and perks for senior management, despite the fact that councils are broke.
“Ever wondered why councils always say they are broke but never fail to pay senior management their mega salaries and huge perks since that require a council resolution,” said a former councillor who preferred anonymity fearing victimisation.
“What then happens is that the councillor will sell the allocated stand without accepting the offer, meaning his or her name will not appear in the transaction. This has been going on at the Chinhoyi council for a very long time,” added the former councillor.
Chinhoyi mayor, Owen Charuza, said what Mlotswa did is rampant in all councils around the country.
“She was just sacrificed, what she did is being done by more than 90% of councils around the country. Mlotswa was just unfortunate” said Charuza
An independent investigation by NewsHub showed that a stand in Mapako low density was repossessed and given to a councillor who had already been given another stand in Chikonohono when he was first voted as a councillor.
Chinhoyi Residents Trust chairperson, Tendai Musonza, lamented the lack of due diligence within the municipality management to curb residential stands double allocations and other forms of corruption.
“The board of directors (councillors) should now ask its employees why due diligence was not exercised in that allocation (Mlotshwa’s).
“It also needs to establish if she is the only one who benefited, which I doubt, and why due diligence was not exercised on the part of management,” added Musonza
Mlotswa was represented by Kudzi Choga, while Brighton Machekera prosecuted.