Chiredzi West Member of Parliament (MP) Farai Musikavanhu
is having a hard time explaining why he mentioned projects that have already
been done in his application for the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
In his application for the fund, Musikavanhu claimed he
needed the money to drill boreholes and buy pumps for wards 2, 5, 6 and 8.
TellZim News, however, understands that those wards have
already been covered by the previous CDF released last year before the end of
the term of Musikavanhu’s predecessor Darlington Chiwa.
It is understood Chiwa did the drilling work and purchased
the pumps in the run-up to the Zanu PF primary election last year when he was
engaged in a bitter contest with Musikavanhu and former Chiredzi town
chairperson Francis Moyo for the right to represent the ruling party in the
July 30 harmonised elections.
Musikavanhu won the chaotic race and then went on to win
the parliamentary seat in the harmonised elections.
Though Chiwa did the drilling work at all the four spots,
he managed to install a pump at only one of them; the police station in Ward 2.
He could not install the rest of the pumps apparently
because the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa), working under the
influence of Musikavanhu, impounded them as intra-party fights raged ahead of
the elections.
Zinwa has held onto the three pumps ever since despite the
water crisis in the wards.
When contacted for comment, Chiwa confirmed the pumps were
seized by Zinwa and taken to their offices where they remain stuck. He said he
too suspected Musikavanhu was plotting to use the pumps for selfish reasons by
pocketing his own CDF payout and presenting the seized pumps as his own
purchase.
"It seems Honourable Musikavanhu has deprived
residents of their right to water for a long time as he looks for clever ways
to divert the next CDF. I heard that when he applied for the CDF, he mentioned
projects that are non-existent as they have already been paid for. Something is
not right there because the drilling was done and the pumps are already
there," said Chiwa.
When contacted for comment, Farai Musikavanhu admitted he
applied for funds to drill boreholes in wards 2, 5, 6 and 8, but claimed he did
not know that the work was already done.
"I was not aware that boreholes had been drilled in
those areas. On my CDF application form, I indeed indicated that I wanted to
drill boreholes in those areas not knowing the work had already been done
there.
"We later agreed with Honourable Chiwa that in Ward 6,
the borehole is contaminated with sewerage and we needed an electric water pump
and solar panels. I will buy those ones so that we can start an irrigated
nutritional garden in the ward," said Musikavanhu.
Zinwa regional manager, Peter Shotere admitted that his
organisation was keeping the impounded pumps, adding that he had initially
thought they belonged to ‘command water’.
“Last year, we received eight pumps from our provincial
office and we were informed they belonged to the command water programme. Two
of them were allocated to Chiredzi North, two to Chiredzi East and four to
Chiredzi West. We later learnt that they had been purchased using money from
CDF," said Shotere.
Other sources urged the media to track how Musikavanhu will
use the CDF, saying there were suspicions he wanted to misappropriate the money
to pay the many runner boys that did his bidding in the chaotic primaries as
well as in the general elections. Tell Zimbabwe
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