HARARE councillors and officials reportedly exploited desperate homeseekers through double allocations of stands, while at the same time allocating land reserved for social amenities ahead of the August 2023 elections, the commission of inquiry investigating the capital city’s financial management and affairs has heard.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa in May this year appointed a commission chaired by retired judge Justice Maphios Cheda to investigate the financial management systems and other businesses of the local authority from 2017 to date.
Appearing before the commission yesterday, City of Harare human resources chairman George Mujajati said efforts to regularise the stands were mired in corruption, with councillors and officials benefiting from the scam.
“There is a lot of dirty dealings in the regularisation process from council and officials. To a certain extent, it is the councillors and the officials [that benefited].
“I am sure a lot of councillors and officials will benefit. The motive was more political, there was no collusion. Before elections, councillors were political, but also there was an election programme of regularising stands,” Mujajati said.
“You’ll find a lot of that coming up and they exploited homeseekers. And you get people who do not own homes being sold stands that are supposed to be for other purposes.
“Councillors will benefit from those sales and they will also demand a portion of that land for regularisation. The same applies to some officials.”
Meanwhile, members of the commission also indicated that they were aware of the corrupt activities, but said officials were benefiting more from the scam.
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They said council officials could be making as much as US$200 per day in allowances at seminars while councillors received US$10, although the latter would have authorised the workshops.
“The councillors will get, what do you call it, dinner, transport and accommodation allowance. Well, councillors also need to go for skills development so that they are able to implement policies,” Mujajati said.
