A Harare City Council junior employee in the housing
department, who is on suspension over allegations of abuse of office and
corrupt parcelling out of stands, has become the owner of an expensive
low-density suburban council house in Belvedere, meant for rent to a top
manager, against all council policies.
acting mayor
This comes when council is overwhelmed with applications by
serving senior managers and other staff seeking to be accommodated in
council-owned houses and with a general policy that council-owned houses cannot
be sold.
Investigations by The Herald revealed that Mr Aaron
Tayerera, a clerical officer in Grade 11, who is among several council
employees on suspension over corrupt land deals, was allowed to buy 49A
Lancaster Avenue (also known as Stand 1448 Belvedere) for an undisclosed
amount, stripping the local authority of its assets.
Normally he would be several grades too junior to be even
allocated the expensive house as a rented property.
Sources say the property was sold for US$80 000, which
raises the question of how the purchase was funded considering a council
employee in Grade 11 gets a monthly salary in the region of $30 000, just under
US$350 at the current auction rate.
But regardless of the price, which could be on the low side
as well as too high for a clerical officer, the house is supposed to remain
under council ownership accommodating serving top managers in need.
Access to decent accommodation is often necessary to
attract top-end staff into council service.
Harare Acting Mayor Councillor Stewart Mutizwa confirmed
the transaction and said it was totally unacceptable but had happened before
his appointment.
“I am aware of the case but the position is no one is
allowed to buy an institutional property. The circumstances under which the
house was sold were unusual. Houses meant for our employees cannot be sold to
anyone, no matter what grade the purchaser holds. Institutional houses must
remain council property accommodating those employees in need.
“We are actually sitting on a backlog of employees in need
of institutional accommodation and stripping council of its assets that way is
unacceptable,” said Cllr Mutizwa.
Investigations by The Herald revealed that MDC-A
councillors, some jointly implicated in the land deals with Tayerera, approved
the sale of the property.
Asked to comment on the case, Tayerera said: “I don’t
discuss such matters on the phone,” before hanging up. Further efforts to
locate Mr Tayerera failed.
The criteria used in allocating Tayerera the house remains
unclear considering he had never stayed at the property before and his grade is
too low for renting the house, let alone for special permission to buy it.
In a criminal case pending at the Harare Magistrate’s Court, it is alleged that between 2018 and 2019, Tayerera and former housing director Matthew Marara hatched a plan to irregularly convert a public open space in Strathaven under council ownership into a residential stand and then sell it for personal gain.
They allegedly demarcated the land, gave it a fictitious
stand number and sold it to an unsuspecting land seeker Aaron Gomo, allegedly
for US$20 900, the court heard.
To cover up for the offence, the pair, it is alleged,
created an offer letter and agreement of sale backdated to 2017, which they
signed and handed to Gomo. The offence
was discovered by the City of Harare Investigations department through a tip
off.
Allegedly fraudulent and fake documents including a
fraudulent file, fake layout plan, offer letter and agreement of sale
manufactured by the pair are being held as exhibits. Herald
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