Machipisa appeared in court on offences he allegedly
committed in a week he acted as housing director in 2018 involving land
allocations valued at US$210 000.
He is facing two counts of criminal abuse of office and the
State opposed his admission to bail on grounds that he was facing a serious
offence and that he would interfere with evidence and investigations.
Represented by Lovemore Madhuku, Machipisa indicated that
his mother had died in the morning of Thursday, the day he initially appeared
in court. This compassionate ground was, however, dismissed by the court saying
prisons have regulations on such matters.
Allegations are that between June 19 and 22, 2018,
Machipisa criminally abused his office as a public official by allocating
fictitious stand numbers 7246 – 7250 and 7253- 7262 in Mabelreign with an
unknown layout plan to home seekers who were not on the council’s housing
waiting list.
He is alleged to have fast tracked the allocation without
due diligence and without following council procedures. The land was designated
for stands 3621 to 3639 on an already approved layout plan.
The State alleges that Machipisa as the acting housing
director took advantage of the absence of a substantive director, who was on a
one-week workshop, to fast-track the allocation process to happen within a week
which he was acting.
When the substantive director returned, Machipisa is
alleged to have concealed the allocations and the director went on to cause
allocation of the land.
One of the beneficiaries, who was said to have been on the
waiting list by 2005, was just 13 years old which is contrary to council’s
housing allocation policy which does not approve juveniles.
It is further alleged that in September this year, Machipisa
directed George Mukodzi, the district officer for Mufakose, to halt
developments on a piece of land which was allocated to Youth In Business Trust
by the State.
He allegedly indicated that the papers Youth In Business
Trust had were fake and that the land belonged to council and allocated to
Taringana Housing Consortium yet the land was State-owned.
Also arrested over the land dispute between Youth In
Business and Taringana Housing Consortium are Taurai Nziradzinengwe and Tatenda
Selemani, accused of interfering with developments at the disputed land.
They allegedly demarcated and allocated the land to their
chosen beneficiaries. The two were granted free bail by magistrate Nduna who
indicated that the State had nothing compelling to deny them bail. Daily News
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