Senior officials at the Ministry of Local Government, Public
Works and National Housing head office have been nailed for interfering with
the allocation of land in favour of their cronies in the lucrative Mt Hampden
area, where Government is constructing the New Parliament Building and intends
to establish a new city.
Former Zvimba Rural District Council chief executive
officer Mr Peter Hlohla revealed the alleged fraudulent allocation and
distribution of land in the area when he appeared before the Commission of
Inquiry into Urban State Land since 2005.
The commission, which is in Mashonaland West, held the
inquiry at the Chinhoyi University of Technology Hotel on Thursday last week.
Chaired by Justice Tendai Uchena, the commission started
its public hearings in Mashonaland West on Wednesday last week, with officials
from various Government departments and councils revealing massive interference
from senior officers from the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and
National Housing.
While other officials where evasive and failed to name the
alleged perpetrators, Mr Hlohla, who resigned from his post two weeks ago, gave
the names of some of the alleged culprits.
He fingered principal director responsible for rural
authorities Mr Christopher Shumba and principal director of physical planning
Mrs Ethel Mlalazi, among senior Government officials, for manipulating the
system in favour of cronies.
Mr Hlohla said Mr Shumba flouted Government procedures in
favour of Delatfin Investments whose partnership with the council had been
cancelled over a number of procedural deficiencies
Delatfin Investments is owned by Engineer Felix Munyaradzi
and had gone into partnership with the Zvimba RDC to develop low-density stands
at Haydon Farm in Mt Hampden.
Mt Hampden is where Government intends to move its offices
when construction of the new Parliament Building is completed.
“Sometime in 2011, the Zvimba RDC resolved to partner a
developer in servicing the land at Haydon Farm prior to the acquisition of the
same,” said Mr Hlohla. “The farm initially sat on 744 hectares, which is also
the description purposes of the available land.
“Council, in partnership with Delatfin, produced a layout
plan covering 266 hectares which was land available after we realised that the
other area was for the jatropha project measuring 295ha and other land reserved
for Mr (Lovemore) Kurotwi.
“The land reserved for Mr Kurotwi included 70ha for Cornway
College and the Diamond Processing Centre (30 hectares). After the agreement was
reached with Delatfin, we came up with a plan with about 1 000 low-density
stands with other amenities, two institutional stands, one for primary and
secondary school.”
The partnership also saw the opening of a bank account
which had two signatories from both parties.
“The account was opened with about $4 000 to $5 000, but
nothing was ever deposited into that account and nothing is known about what
happened to that account,” said Mr Hlohla.
He indicated that Delatfin had initially been overlooked for
the project when it went to tender because it had no proof of equipment to
sustain the project, while it also had offshore accounts.
“The order to go into partnership with them came from above
(head office),” said Mr Hlohla. “However, when we went into the project, the
partner failed to deliver, raising curiosity from council.
“The partner also approached council for the right to
dispose of his share of stands so that they can service the land and again
council was not amused by this.”
Delatfin had a 60 percent stake in the partnership, with
the other going to council and stands reserved for commonage.
“Eng Munyaradzi wanted to dispose of his share of 60
percent, but he ended up developing a certain area where he had allocated and
collected money from some of the beneficiaries,” said Mr Hlohla.
He alleged that Delatfin grabbed 120ha of land that was not
part of the project without the approval of the Zvimba RDC, resulting in a
protracted dispute.
Mr Hlohla told the Commission that Delatfin developed and
allocated stands on an area reserved for the schools, escalating its dispute
with the council.
“In March last year, a meeting was convened at the
ministry’s boardroom in Harare to address the allocation of land at Haydon Farm
with a view of correcting the anomaly,” he said.
“However, the meeting irregularly recommended that the
Department of State Land should write a formal letter to Delatfin Investments
and regularise the allocation of the disputed 120 hectares.”
Among the officials who attended the meeting, according to
Mr Hlohla, were Mr Shumba, Mrs Mlalazi and acting deputy director State Land
Department Ms Kristina Koswa Chikotera.
Mrs Mlalazi has since left her position in the ministry.
Mr Hlohla was challenged by the commissioners on the basis
of his allegations, but insisted that council, as the custodians of the land,
was in charge of the area, not officials from head office.
“Zvimba RDC recommends the plans and designs that come
through their partners, but in this case Mrs Mlalazi insisted that everything
was above board on the recommendations of her officers in her office,” he said.
“Mr Shumba also showed some interest in the matter, while
presiding over cases which were not under his jurisdiction. In normal
circumstances, council recommends approval of all plans.
“In this instance, council had resolved to cancel the
partnership with and allocation of land to Delatfin, but our head office
reversed that decision.”
Mr Hlohla alleged that Eng Munyaradzi enjoyed a cordial
relationship with senior officials in Harare with unabated access to
information from Mr Shumba’s office.
“I even heard of my pending suspension from council way
before the letter arrived, through people who claimed to have received
information from Eng Munyaradzi,” he said.
Mr Hlohla revealed how two councillors were dismissed after
they were bribed with vehicles and a stand each by Eng Munyaradzi.
He told the commission that Mr Shumba derived his power
from his political position, while he was a former provincial administrator in
Mashonaland West province.
In her submissions to the commission on Wednesday last
week, Mashonaland West provincial physical planning officer Mrs Sekai Vivian
Matimba revealed how orders were, in some instances, directed from Harare to
fast-track applications.
Justice Uchena had sought clarity on whether or not the
provincial office originated the documents when Mrs Matimba said her office was
ordered to submit their approval for documents originating from Harare.
“The normal procedure is to submit the plans through the
province,” she said. “If it’s a local authority or a private developer, they
submit to the province and then we submit it to head office for approval.
“But in this case we were told that the submission and
technical input that is normally done at provincial level had already been done
by head office.”
All parties to the dispute are expected to appear before
the commission.
President Mnangagwa appointed the commission following the
mushrooming of illegal settlements in most urban areas, most of which were
products of the illegal sale of State
land by land barons. Herald
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