Then Cabinet minister Ignatius Chombo reportedly facilitated a deal whereby the daughter of the late former President Robert Mugabe, Mrs Bona Nyepudzai Mutsahuni, and her husband, Mr Simbarashe Mutsahuni, bought 20 hectares of Hellensvale land zoned for recreation for a paltry US$2 300, prejudicing Harare City Council of millions of dollars and flying in the face of town planning regulations.
The city council reportedly was paid US$2 300, but the
market price of 20ha of land in Hellensvale ranges from US$4,5 million to
US$7,2 million. Seeff Properties, a real estate agent, last week was selling a
0,5ha stand in Hellensvale for US$180 000, which translates to US$7,2 million
for 20ha, while Kennan Properties was selling 0,4ha in the same area for US$90
000, which translates to US$4,5 million for 20ha.
While Helensvale was part of the huge Borrowdale Estate
staked out by three officers of Cecil Rhodes’ occupation column, and so was
developed privately, town planning law insists that private land owners
developing a new suburb must hand over for free around 20 percent for
education, recreational, or other public uses.
While development of Helensvale started before the end of
the 1960s when Harare City Council absorbed its outer ring of suburbs, the city
council would have inherited ownership of the public use slice of Helensvale at
that time.
The basic allegations compiled by city investigators are
that Chombo, when he was Local Government Minister had the land rezoned to
private use, so it could be sold, then arranged it to be sold for a mere US$2
300 for a company called Chordac Investments (Private) Limited, which was
fronted at that time by two senior ministry officials but which is a vehicle
owned by Mr and Mrs Mutsahuni.
In fact the rezoning was still in progress when the sale
went through three days before the redesignation was finalised. The
redesignation had to be approved by the Local Government Minister, but that was
Chombo.
A land audit report compiled by Harare City Council’s
special investigations committee chaired by Councillor Warship Dumba accused
Chombo of allocating himself Stand 61 Hellensvale measuring 20ha for US$2 300.
But investigations by The Herald found that the property is owned by Chordac
Investments with the two directors listed in the Companies’ Registry office
being Mrs Bona and Mr Simbarashe Mutsahuni (also known as Chikore).
The Special Investigations Committee’s report noted the
anomalies in the way the stand was purchased.
“The land was sold to Minister Chombo without following
town planning procedures whereby change of land use was approved on March 28,
2008, after he had already bought the stand on March 25, 2008,” reads part of
the report.
While Chombo’s name does not appear on Chordac Investments’
CR14 Form, his close ally Mr Nelson Mhandu, who was a deputy director in the
Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, was one of the
founding directors along with Ms Natsai Jaiwa, who was a principal
administration officer in the same ministry during Chombo’s tenure.
However, according to the company’s official documents, Mr
Mhandu and Ms Jaiwa resigned as directors of the company on the same day, 11
November 2015, leaving Mr and Mrs Mutsahuni-Chikore as the directors.
Mr Mutsahuni refused to comment on the issue, referring all
questions to his lawyer Mr Jonathan Samukange of Venturas and Samukange Legal Practitioners.
“We don’t comment on such issues. Just write what you want. We don’t care,” he
said.
Mr Samukange responded as follows: “We do not know anything
about that property. We also do not know anything about that company (Chodac
Investments),” said Mr Samukange.
According to the special report covering land transactions
carried out between October 2004 and December 2009, Chombo also stands accused
of violating the city’s policy on multiple property ownership as well as
pressing council officials to apply to him for a change of land use and then
press them to sell the land to him.
The report said contrary to the council policy that an
individual must not get more than one residential property from council, the
minister acquired vast tracts of public-owned land within greater Harare and
registered them in companies associated with him.
A private person can buy as many privately owned stands as
they like, but for many decades the council has had a policy of only selling
council residential stands to those who own no other city housing, or in later
years to those moving upmarket and willing to sell the downmarket stand.
“It remains disturbing to note that the minister (Chombo)
would identify pieces of land in the city, influence council officials to apply
to him (Chombo) for change of land use, and then sit over the same applications
and approve the changes.
“He would then write to council officials asking to buy the
same stands and obviously get them.
“Land reserved for recreational activities would end up
having title deeds in his company’s name. A case in point is Stand 61
Hellensvale, Harare, measuring almost 20 hectares. According to the advice of
payment the minister paid $2 300 for this stand,” reads the report.
According to the special report, the investigations carried
out proved beyond doubt that Chombo abused his powers in many instances by
verbally giving instructions to council on land issues.
It said Chombo’s actions flouted the then Section 313 of
the Urban Councils Act of 1996 which entailed that the minister could give
directives of a “general character” as to the policy council is to observe in
the exercise of its functions as appear to the minister to be requisite in the
national interest.
“General character” would exclude directives dealing with
single stands.
The Act further states that “where the minister considers
that it might be desirable to give any directives . . . he shall inform the
council concerned in writing of his proposal and council shall, within 30 days
or such further period as the minister may allow, submit to the minister, in
writing, its views on the proposal and the possible implications on the
finances and other resources of the council”.
The act further states that the council shall, with all due
expedition, comply with any directives given to it in terms of the Section 313
of the Urban Councils Act.
There were also clear recommendations ignored from the
report that the council should repossess Stand 61 Hellensvale because it was
acquired irregularly.
Other recommendations were that there was conflict of
interest on the part of Chombo and the stand should revert to its Town Planning
Scheme purposes and remain an open space for recreational purposes.
Chombo was recently arrested by the Special Anti-Corruption
Unit (SACU) in connection with the Uchena Land Commission Report, which alleges
various charges of fraud and criminal abuse of office from his tenure as
Minister of Local Government from 2000 to 2015.
He is currently out on bail. Herald
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