A SEVEN-MEMBER sub-committee appointed by the Harare City Council in May this year has unearthed a scandal which has resulted in the municipality losing more than US$2 million in a shoddy land deal.
In May this year, the municipality appointed the sub-committee to investigate circumstances leading to the occupation of stands 154 to 166 in Amby Township, Greendale where cluster houses have since been built.
NewsDay is in possession of the Works and Town Planning sub-committee final report that has already been presented to the council by the sub-committee chairperson councillor Denford Ngadziore.
Other members of the committee include councillors Prince Matebuka, Richard Pamire, Jane Bingari and Harare City Council officials Aaron Tayerera (housing and community services), John Mudzengerera (urban planning) and Stanley Kumbirai Chimbetete from the chamber secretary’s office.
The works and town planning committee appointed the sub-committee under item 3 of the minutes dated May 23, 2024 to investigate whether all town planning procedures and other relevant statutes, policies and regulations were complied with regarding allocation, occupation of 13 residential stands on the land described as remaining extend of Bingley, Salisbury Township.
The investigation was launched after residents wrote a petition to Greendale district officer and copied to Harare mayor Jacob Mafume and chairperson of works and town planning raising concern on the residential developments on the land.
In an interview yesterday, Ngadziore confirmed that the council lost more than US$2 million due to non-payment of property rates.
“We had over three months of investigations. During the investigation period we received threats in the form of calls but we did not stop our work collectively.
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“We have many such cases that need investigation. We hope the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) will do justice to arrest the culprits.
“We have established that the land in question is a private land with no rates collected for close to 45 years and council is owed over US$2 million for nonpayment of property rates.
“The land is valued at US$900 000. The beneficiaries have fake offer letters, fake agreements of sale, fake receipts of payment from council.
“There are no council resolutions to support the allocation of the stands. We have since referred the matter to Zacc for prosecution,” he added.
Harare City Council director of housing and community services Addmore Nhekairo confirmed that he was aware of the matter.
“We discovered that this was private land but l am not allowed to speak to the press,” Nhekairo said.
However, in the report, Nhekairo recommended that files for the stands be forwarded to Harare Metropolitan Police for further investigations.
According to the report, the subcommittee, during its investigations, noted that there was a disjointed and segmented departmental consultations system leading to uncoordinated implementation processes.
“It was noted that there was laxity on adherence to laid down procedures or standing operating procedures as well as lack of supervision on critical areas was the order of the day.
“The audit manager reported that the range of receipts on which land prices were receipted was fraudulently generated and no money was receipted into council coffers.
“The audit division carried out a separate investigation involving a cashier at Borrowdale district office and a clearing officer stationed at Rowan Martin Building Banking Hall and found out that the receipts that were in the same batch of receipts used for the Greendale stands had been used to commit similar fraudulent payments,” the report read.
The report said the audit also found out that the letterheads used had anomalies as the signatories to the offer letters were still written as director of corporate services yet the department had reverted to its original name as the housing and community services department.
“The audit manager reported the range of receipts on which the land prices were receipted was fraudulently generated and no money was receipted into council coffers,” it said.
The report also indicated that the land has been classified as derelict.
