Officials at the Harare City Council are allocating land for residential purposes to people who are not on the municipality’s housing waiting list, the commission of inquiry into the affairs of the city has heard.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed the commission led by retired judge Justice Maphios Cheda early this year to investigate financial management systems and audit compliance with the Public Finance Management Act and financial management of revenue generated through special vehicle companies and other out-sourced arrangements.
In an affidavit submitted by the Tinzweiwo Mufakose Housing Co-op to the commission of inquiry last week, council is accused of allocating stand to people who are not on the housing co-operative scheme waiting list.
Appearing before the commission, Tinzweiwo Mufakose Housing Co-op secretary Enias Musiremba said they were told that no one should occupy the land until it is properly surveyed for road, water and sewer access.
“On 12 April 2020 Tinzweiwo Cooperative was instructed to undertake the land survey (General Plan TPF/ WR/27/17) before the finalisation of the provision of provisional offer letters and allocation of stands.
“The co-operative approached Harare City Council for guidance and followed the guide. Eighteen (18) members of the co-operative were given provisional offer letters and 32 other members are still to receive offer letters.
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“It was unfortunate that Mr Dzehonye [Edgar] the housing manager and Enah Chapanduka started what we feel is manipulating the process by allocating stands to members given by Chapanduka who belong to Kuwadzana First Housing Co-operative who have not contributed anything towards the identification and surveying of the land in question.
“After we were issued with provisional letters, we went to the district office where we were paying ZWL10 000 according to instructions. We were asked how many provisional letters had been issued. Initially, when we went there, we found that there were 32.”
He said when they approached council for the second time, they found out that there were 36 while they also discovered that among the 36, some of them were not members.
“That is from the district office record. They went on to irregularly allocate stands to their 16 members using the certificate of our co-operative No 3778 and disadvantaged Tinzweiwo Mufakose Housing Co-operative members,” he added.
Meanwhile, the commission has questioned the ownership of the commercial estate allocated between Alps and Granter to the acting town planner of Council Samuel Nyabeze.
In response, Nyabeze said the estate belonged to a Mrs Kuwanda.
“The building plans that I have mentioned the name of Mrs Kuwanda. There are no initials. In fact, it was stamped three times.
“The plan for 1999 leaves out a distance of three metres from the road frontage but this plan was revised in 2011. It does not leave building lines from Alps road. It is already on the road. The last revision was in 2013.”
The commission asked if the town planner visited the site before approval.
“No. Normally, we have what we call a one-stop shop at council where several departments or divisions are represented at the one-stop shop by technicians.
“These are the technicians who go through each division, who will look at issues that are relevant to it. We have a town planner who will look at issues of use, land use, whether the land use being proposed is relevant to the property. The planner will also look at the issue of building lines,” he said.