MASHONALAND Central Provincial Affairs and Devolution minister Christopher Magomo has found himself in the eye of a storm after he allegedly benefited from a scandal involving executives at Mvurwi Town Council, NewsDay has heard.
Magomo is also accused of defending council executives who allegedly bypassed tender procedures and disregarded the stakeholder consultation process when they bought a fleet of expensive cars.
In a report, the Mvurwi Town Residents and Ratepayers Trust secretary Holy Matare accused the minister, appointed after the August 2023 harmonised elections, of being dishonest and evasive when dismissing queries from the trust.
Magomo dismissed the allegations when he was contacted by NewsDay this week.
“I never received anything of that sort and I do not entertain rogue media. There are no such circumstances in Mashonaland Central,” he said.
In the scathing attack on Magomo, Matare, who copied a letter of his concerns to several stakeholders and authorities, argued that the executives at Mvurwi are not prioritising resource allocation towards the town’s basic services and amenities which is a prerequisite for development.
“By the end of 2023, residents learnt that Mvurwi Town was buying cars for heads of department. We would like to highlight to you that the transactions were done without any consultation or any form of notification to residents,” Matare said.
“We also feel that there are more urgent needs to be addressed since the council is bypassing residents, which is in violation of the Constitution," Matare added.
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He said section 194(e) of the Constitution states that people’s needs must be responded to within a reasonable time while the public must be encouraged to participate in policy making.
“Subsection (h) further affirms that transparency must be fostered by providing the public with timely, accessible and accurate information,” Matare said.
The residence also queried a series of expensive workshops held by the executives to the detriment of developmental projects.
“We also believe that expensive cars chosen during the purchase are not compatible with our financial capabilities. We believe all these cars could have cost residents up to US$700 000,” Matare said.
He further questioned why the provincial affairs minister was not responding to the concerns raised by the residents.
