Stung by mounting evidence linking him to monumental land acquisition scams and tolerance of corruption Local government Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo is on a warpath against his detractors.
The unpopular Zanu PF nominated Minister had become used to getting his way against elected Councils during the heydays of monolithic Zanu PF misrule.
He is stopping at nothing to turn tables against his MDC-T detractors now in charge of all urban councils where the Minister and his acolytes had free reign to plunder and pillage while the appointed Commissioners he paraded as the gatekeepers quacked in their pants at just the mention of the Minister’s involvement in any project.
This has all changed with the restoration of people elected Councils that the Minister is trying to dissuade from carrying out their electoral mandates through several well coordinated political interventions.
Minister Chombo is appointing loosing Zanu PF candidates as Special Interests Councillors in all authorities for which they stood for election and were rejected.
They are indeed Special Zanu PF Interest Councillors as they are specifically appointed to serve the purpose of Zanu PF spies into on goings in local authorities the party has lost control of to the MDC-T.
In Harare the Chombo appointed Special Zanu PF Interests Councillors have been working day and night to tarnish the image of the predominant MDC-T elected Councillors in a bid to outdo their counterparts in Chitungwiza who exposed corruption within the MDC –T dominated Council resulting in the Party severing its ties with the corrupt Councillors.
Instead of complimenting the MDC-T decisive action to root out corruption in local authorities by dissolving the corrupt Chitungwiza Council Minister Chombo gave them protection in return for them keeping a lead on Zanu PF corrupt land acquisitions in the Town.
In Harare the MDC-T Councillors have hogged the limelight in the Herald for their corrupt evictions of Municipal Tenants and occupation of properties.
What is evident though is that the Harare Council has embarked on an extensive Estate audit of its rented accommodation and discovered that most of its properties are being let to “ordinary” residents ahead of Council employees.
Rentals charged for these lucky tenants are sub economic as they are at staff incentive rates while the Council workers are charged exorbitant lodgers’ rentals by the same undeserving tenants who have somehow managed to secure Council properties ahead of Council employees.
By some coincidence the beneficiaries identify with Zanu PF thus creating a political conflict out of what should really be a routine employment matter between the Council and its employees.
It is common cause that Zanu PF has stuffed Harare City council ranks with its loyalists and they in turn have used insider knowledge to ensure relatives and friends were leased Council houses ahead of the more deserving Council employees recruited outside of Zanu PF structures.
In carrying out the Estate audits Council stumbled on eyebrow raising evidence of the acquisition of vast tracts of land and prime properties by senior Zanu PF functionaries.
Among the more prominent such beneficiaries were Phillip Chiyangwa, Sekesai Makwavarara, Dr Ignatius Chombo and Tendai Savanhu or companies owned by these Zanu PF luminaries.
The Cllr Warship Dumba led Estates audit unravelled glaring inconsistencies in the manner properties belonging to Council were acquired by mainly Zanu PF linked citizens and or their companies and produced a 58 page record of its findings for Council deliberations.
Before the document was tabled in council it was leaked to the Press which could not believe its fortunes given the information restrictions it works under and they dutifully made the findings public information.
Minister Chombo and Phillip Chiyangwa in particular were not amused and filed criminal defamation charges against the City Council Audit team and Mayor of Harare.
The police obliged and promptly arrested the eight Harare City Councillors involved in the Audit and the Mayor in a move many saw as an attempt to silence the investigation.
Unfortunately for them by the time they arrested the Councillors full Council had already debated the report and adopted it.
It was now due to be auctioned upon by the Council’s Executive Secretariat after verification of its accuracy.
Meanwhile Dr Chombo has set up his own Audit team to investigate reported evictions from Council properties.
The motivation behind Dr Chombo’s response to reported evictions are not difficult to see as he has been organising poorly attended protests to highlight the anomaly.
But similar accusations of corruption against Chitungwiza councillors from the
MDC-T have been conveniently neglected by DR Chombo who insists that he will not take any action against the Council until such time as the MDC-T provides him with evidence of the corruption that led it to fire the Councillors enmasse.
The question that remains unanswered is who has provided Dr Chombo with evidence of the Harare evictions to justify him setting up a special investigation team into the matter which he could not set up when the MDC-T publicly alerted him to the corruption in the Chitungwiza council.
It is also mind boggling why the police have arrested and are investigating the Harare councillors when they did not consider it proper to equally investigate alleged corruption in Chitungwiza by arresting the MDC –T dismissed Councillors.
Now that the police have decided to arrest the complainants in corruption allegations at Harare City Council how will that impact on confidence and will power of those tasked to investigate corruption in future?
The move by the police to respond to the criminal defamation complaint by Chiyangwa would be commendable if it was the norm rather than the exception it is.
The Councillors are not the problem here rather the alleged inconsistencies in transfer of properties belonging to the City to individuals is.
Councillors are there to protect council property from unprocedural privatisation by anyone and they should be given maximum law protection to freely investigate any Council transaction without fear of potential legal ramifications.
If as has unfortunately happened, Councillors are restricted by the fear of police incarceration after performance of public responsibilities, they are unlikely to perform their role to perfection.
As it turns out Council has now filed corruption reports against Minister Chombo, Phillip Chiyangwa and their acolytes named in the report.
Corruption being a more serious scourge than the defamation allegations, we expect the police to double their haste in arresting the accused and subjecting to the same scrutiny they subjected the Councillors.
Cast back to 1999/2000 when the same Chiyangwa got the entire First Mutual Life top management arrested for corruption and fiduciary impropriety and you will understand why Chombo and Chiyangwa have resorted to filing early reports to the police.
The idea is to cast aspersion in the police that they are innocent victims of any future accusations from a Council whose Councillors are countering criminal charges they have filed and must never be entertained if they report any case to the police.
Sure enough Council has been duped into reporting the case to the Police in the hope that Chombo and Chiyangwa together with accomplices named in the report will be arrested.
The likelihood of the arrest is remote and even if they should be arrested the likelihood of their successful prosecution has already been put in jeopardy by political meddling from the early stages in investigations.
Already there are those arguing that Council brought it upon themselves to be arrested by releasing its report to the press prematurely and thus creating grounds for suspects to claim criminal defamation.
That absurdity is only justifiable if police had established that there is evidence of factual manipulation by the Councillors to cast aspersions on the innocence of persons named in the report before arresting the councillors.
But no, the Police swiftly moved in to arrest the Councillors and are now investigating the matter while the Councillors are in their custody which is outrageous for a minor crime like defamation.
Chiyangwa’s defence that his acquisition of land from the city was all above board as he paid for the land by providing the city with cash to enable it to pay salaries and wages is indicative that the city’s tender procedures may have been vitiated in batter transactions with Chiyangwa.
Since when has local councils acquired special borrowing powers to approach private citizens other than banks to source working capital?
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