This comes as a number of high-ranking HCC officials are
either in remand prison or are out on bail for their alleged involvement in
numerous illicit land deals.
Tongoona, who is embroiled in a residential scandal of his
own, compiled a list of 24 council officials, who are facing criminal charges,
and ordered that they should not be permitted to enter council premises.
Ironically, Tongoona left out his name from the list
despite having been arrested earlier this month for alleged criminal abuse of
office.
He allegedly authorised the development of a residential
stand in Marlborough without a certificate of compliance.
Early this month, Tongoona appeared before magistrate
Lazini Ncube on the charges before he was remanded out of custody on $20 000
bail and was ordered not to interfere with State witnesses.
After his release, Tongoona, at Chawatama’s behest, wrote a
letter to all HCC superintendents directing them to ban the 24 officials from
entering council premises.
“Be advised that the attached list of council employees who
are on suspension or on bail do have pending cases with the courts of law.
“They should not be allowed entry at any council business
premises until their cases are concluded. This directive is from the head
public safety with the express blessings from the acting town clerk, the
provincial development and the parent ministry of Local Government and Public
Works,” Tongoona wrote.
Chawatama yesterday declined to comment, while Tongoona
referred all questions to the acting town clerk.
Some of the names listed on the memo penned by Tongoona
include town clerk Hosiah Chisango, principal housing officer Edgar Dzehonye
and human capital director Mathew Marara.
In the court proceedings against these officials, the State
alleges that most of them abused their public positions to award residential
stands to underserving people not found on the council housing waiting list.
In some cases, the council officials would create
residential stands from vacant pieces of land reserved for schools, powerlines
and railway lines or on wetlands.
They would then pocket the money from the sale of these
stands to their own use thereby prejudicing council. Daily News
0 comments:
Post a Comment