HARARE councillors are pushing for the transfer of a housing director after he allegedly refused to allocate them housing stands outside their wards as per policy as they wanted land in the capital’s leafy suburbs.
Council’s human resources and general purposes committee that sat last Thursday resolved to transfer Funny Machipisa, who is the housing and community services deputy director to be director of the city’s little known and malfunctioning department of excellence after he refused to bow down to pressure from the councillors to allocate them stands in low density suburbs.
Three committee meetings have been held this month to deliberate on plans to reduce Machipisa to a lecturer at the Gunhill Excellence School.
Some councillors said the decision to push the director out came after he insisted on allocating the city fathers housing stands in their respective wards.
The councillors are said to have refused to collect the letters, which allocated them stands in their respective wards.
Other councillors approached Machipisa protesting against the allocations and demanded that they be allocated stands in low densitysuburbs, but he is said to have refused.
He is said to have referred them to a government circular of 2020, which ordered that councillors should be allocated land in their respective wards.
Most of the protesting councillors have already benefited from allocation of stands, mainly in their wards.
A full council meeting is now set for Tuesday to adopt the minutes of the human resources committee meeting, which have remained a secret in order to protect the surprise move.
The majority of the councillors opposed to Machipisa’s transfer are from the Citizens of Coalition for Change (CCC).
They told Standard People that the human resources committee chairperson George Mujajati was driving the agenda against Machipisa and is believed to be working with other powerful councillors, who want to appoint their preferred person as director of housing.
The CCC councillors feel that Machipisa’s victimisation will lend credence to allegations that the local authority is being paralysed by corruption after President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed a commission to investigate the local authority.
They say the council should be united because divisions will result in the officers giving damning information to the commission.
Mujajati was not picking calls yesterday, but was quoted by a state controlled paper, admitting that Machipisa would be reassigned as part of a job rationalisation exercise by council.
“We are sending him there because of his qualifications, which suit the department,” Mujajati was quoted saying.
Machipisa refused to comment on the matter.
Some disgruntled councillors claimed Mujajati wanted to bring back scandal-ridden principal housing officer Edgar Dzehonye to take over from Machipisa.