WESTERN
embassies (names supplied) were favoured in the illegal parcelling of
residential stands by the MDC Alliance-led council in Harare as the opposition
party used its control of the capital city to prepare a war chest for 2023
elections and also finance its subversive activities.
This comes
after investigations by The Herald revealed that MDC-Alliance councillors have
been using their city father status to blatantly disregard the housing waiting
list and milk council of millions of dollars through undervaluing properties.
The MDC-A
shenanigans in Harare, that could be a tip of the iceberg of corruption in the
opposition-controlled local authorities, saw the party leaders, including its
leader Nelson Chamisa, being given residential stands, while councillors also
sold the stands in US dollars but paid the Harare City Council in local
currency.
“Two Western
embassies also bought the corruptly acquired land, the land was not sold to
them directly but was sold through two real estates that are owned by Gertrude
Dumba, who is a Harare Council employee.
“Twenty-five
stands were sold to employees of a Western embassy in Westlea under plan number
TDF/ER/07/19, the same companies sold 19 residential stands in Greendale to
employees of another embassy under plan TPF/WR/69/19,” a person familiar with
Harare land dealings said.
Presently, more
than a dozen of Harare City Council officials, who include MDC-A Mayor Hebert
Gomba, human resources and former housing director Matthew Marara, the city’s
town planner Samuel Nyabeze and surveyor Munyaradzi Bowa have been arrested on
a string of allegations that include criminal abuse of office and brazen
corruption.
The elaborate
plan in Harare saw the MDC-A councillors working with the city council
management to occupy open land and milk the city dry for personal enrichment
and also to prepare for elections.
Investigations
by The Herald also established that, because of the elaborate planning from the
MDC-A hierarchy, a process that could take weeks to complete would be done in
less than two hours, while council resolutions would be fast-tracked to ensure
that those who were sold the residential stands, often times who jumped the
housing waiting list, had their residential stands in a matter of houses.
Information
gleaned from various sources revealed that the only two MDC-A councillors, who
are not involved in stripping the city of land out of the 45, are Ian Makone
(Ward 18) and Ward 4 councillor Tracey Chagarisa as the party primitively
accumulated wealth in what has left the capital with no open space or land
banks.
The Harare land
scam has also sucked in members of the judiciary, the police, investigators
from the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, and also some private companies.
One of the
companies that was named in the land scam Hayes Construction yesterday,
however, denied any connection with the MDC-A saying its dealings were above
board. Herald
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