The two
appeared before Harare regional magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa, who released them
unconditionally as they were brought to court from home hence bail issues
didn’t arise.
Ncube was the
acting town clerk from 2015 to 2017 while Manyenyeni was the mayor from 2013 to
2018.
The court heard
that as the Acting Town Clerk, Ncube was responsible for the proper
administration of the council, managing the operations and property of the
council and supervising and controlling the activities of the employees of the
council in the course of their employment among other duties as specified in
the Urban Councils Act.
Manyenyeni on
the other hand was responsible for the overall sight on Harare City council on
behalf of the council, chairing Council meetings and ensuring that council
resolutions were implemented.
Allegations are
that in 2013, Shelter Incorporated Private Limited trading as Shelter Zimbabwe
applied for a joint venture partnership with City of Harare to service and
develop residential stands in Donnybrooke Mabvuku indicating that it had
financial capacity to service the stands.
On May 14
2013, a meeting was held by the
Education, Health, Housing and Community services committee, and the committee
resolved to recommend that Council approves the servicing and Development of
1,500 residential stands in Mabuku by Shelter Zimbabwe under item 9 of the
Minutes.
The
recommendation received the concurrence of the Finance and Development
committee on May 16 2013 under item 7.
On June 4
2013, the Full Council adopted the
recommendation from the committees during the 1828th Ordinary Council meeting
under item 8 of the minutes, resulting in City of Harare entering into a
Memorandum of Agreement with Shelter Zimbabwe.
In the
memorandum, the City of Harare provided
land approximately 657 hectares depicted under TPY/ER/01/13 in Tafara to
Shelter Zimbabwe to fully service the Land providing onsite and off-site
infrastructure on 1,500 residential stands within a period of two years, which
extended from the 15th of October 2016 to the 15th of October 2018.
The allocation
of residential stands was to be done through City of Harare housing waiting
list and Shelter Zimbabwe was going to recover its development cost from the
individuals allocated through City of Harare housing waiting list in accordance
to section 7.1 of the MOA.
Shelter
Zimbabwe was to commence work within six months.
The court heard
that five lapsed before Shelter
Zimbabwe commenced work and no
development was done on site, and instead in February 2017 Shelter Zimbabwe
(Pvt) Ltd wrote a letter to City of Harare seeking to sell the residential stands.
Shelter
Zimbabwe’s request was denied by the then Housing Director Mathew Marara in a
letter dated March 14 2017 as their request amounted to the breach of contract
especially clause 7.1.
This received
concurrence from the then Director of Works, Engineer P M Pfukwa and the then
Acting Chamber Secretary, who recommended the cancellation of the Memorandum of
Agreement as Shelter Zimbabwe request suggested that they did not have
resources required to service the land.
Despite these
recommendations, on June 30 2017, a meeting was held between City of Harare
Management which consisted of Ncube, Bridget Mandizha, Samuel Nyabeza, Antonio
Zvoutete; and Shelter Zimbabwe officials.
In the meeting
they agreed that Shelter Zimbabwe should be allowed to sell and allocate the
residential stands before completion of servicing.
On September 15
2017, without seeking Council approval, Ncube and Manyenyeni amended section
7.1 of the Memorandum of Agreement through an Addendum and mandated Shelter
Zimbabwe to allocate and sell unserviced stands well knowing that a Council
resolution was needed to amend the Memorandum of Agreement on behalf City of
Harare.
According to
the State, Shelter Zimbabwe proceeded to sell residentials stands which they
were not supposed to sell according to the initial Memorandum of Agreement.
Shelter
Zimbabwe has not yet developed the land despite the fact that it sold the
stands and received the money.
Ncube and
Manyenyeni by virtue of their offices as public officers and in the exercise of
their duties acted contrary to their
duties as public officer by disregarding council approval and mandating Shelter
Zimbabwe to sell and allocate un-serviced stands, resulting in the project now
being funded by prospective beneficiaries.
The value of
the whole project is US$20 million with the stands being sold at an average of
US$15 000. H Metro
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