News / National
Former Harare Mayor distances himself from Budiriro demolitions
15 Dec 2020 at 14:21hrs | Views
Herbert Gomba, the former Mayor of Harare and Councillor of Ward 27 in Glen Norah B has distanced himself from the recent Budiriro housing demolitions.
This follows a letter that has been making rounds on social media implicating the former Mayor in the housing demolitions.
"The letter is fake and false, it seems two factions exist in ZANU-PF, one that is working with suspended Council officials to write fake statements in order to return corrupt Council officials to work and the other which is following government directives to say all arrested must stay away till cases are over. All municipal officials who are corrupt have a tendency to invite senior government leaders to help them in their causes by writing fake statements," said Gomba.
In addition, Gomba said both the residents and land barons were at fault in the Budiriro demolitions debacle, "both parties are guilty of whatever happened, our residents must not pretend that they don't know that those barons were crooks that led them to build on land not supposed to be built on.
However, Council was supposed to get land from central government to resettle those that were unfortunately crooked."
Below is the letter that has been making rounds on social media:
Open letter to the President
Att:
HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT MNANGAGWA
RE- *IT IS NEITHER MDC NOR ZANU PF BUT TWO INDIVIDUALS SET TO GET MILLIONS - EXPOSING WHAT YOUR OFFICIALS WILL NOT TELL YOU ABOUT THE BUDIRIRO
DEMOLITION SAGA*
Your excellency your person and your Party has been demonised beyond measure by many including international celebrities and organisations for the recent Budiriro Demolitions that left men, women and babies homeless during this rain season.
Your excellency, I pity you because neither you nor your Party are at fault here, not even the opposition MDC is at fault. As both parties play the blame game I have gathered that your officials are not coming out clean on the Budiriro Demolition Saga. In my official capacity I work closely with the Harare Provincial Development Coordinator Mr Tafadzwa Muguti and Harare Metropolitan Minister Oliver Chidau, I will thus expose them for the sole reason that they have brought shame to your name all for the sake of money.
Here's the true reason Budiriro was demolished.
We strategized and agreed that Budiriro should be used as a Guinea pig in order to test the waters. Budiriro was not our target per say, though Budiriro has political enemies like Godfrey Gomwe, the reason we demolished the houses there was to set a precedence, and if there's no much fire the Demolitions will then move to places were Muguti and Chidau will pocket Millions of US dollars without raising much suspicion.
I will explain further Your Excellency.
Forget the one Chitungwiza commercial stand that has been all over the media that was allegedly corruptly purchased by Muguti before having the Acting Town Clerk exonerate him under duress. Muguti has several residential open spaces in Chitungwiza that are currently under illegal occupation.
It does not end there your Excellency, You can task your people to find out if Muguti does not own Melfort farms in Ruwa under Goromonzi Rural District Council. These are large swathes of land, which he corruptly got but the area is currently occupied by illegal occupants.
Now the motivation Your Excellency is that Muguti has found a South African investor with the help of ex cabinet Minister Savior Kasukuwere and the only hindrance for a multi million dollar deal are the illegal occupants. This is why he is extremely desperate to set up a demolition precedence everywhere he could extend the same to the land he owns without raising eyebrows.
Your Excellency the same scenario applies to your minister Chidau who is also part of the deal.
For the avoidance of doubt and to prove this is not a social media smear campaign as I have a good working relationship with the minister , you can task your security details to confirm if Chidau does not possess large areas of land in Retreat area. They should also confirm if Chidau is not planning to set up a Madokero like village in the area working on model of fidelity housing, these are the fancy low density like houses in Harare South were thousands are paying thousands of US dollars on a monthly basis to fidelity and building classy houses. Your excellency let your inner security verify is Retreat land owned by Chidau is not occupied by illegal occupants and if he is desperate to have them chucked out so he can build his own Madokero village and fidelity housing scheme replica.
To achieve this, we discussed and concluded that it was suicidal to start with the land they own and we agreed that on the pritency of cleaning the City we start with Budiriro. We further strategized that when see that there's no much fire in Budiriro we will then proceed to areas owned by Muguti and Chidau so they can start work as soon as possible. If there's fire like we have witnessed, we will chill and go back on the drawing table.
Your Excellency if you are to verify do not send anyone from ZACC, maybe try SACU. 90% of ZACC investigators report to Muguti and Chidau and they are used to target perceived enemies. This process of capturing ZACC is financed by former Harare Mayor Hebert Gomba, envelopes containing between 5000 and 10 000 US dollars are collected almost on weekly basis at his house and are distributed to just about everyone at ZACC.
Sometimes Muguti and Chidau get to share the money and lie to Gomba that they forwarded to ZACC guys.
In the Budiriro Demolitions Your Excellency we were working with a council employee called Mazvimba and was key in strategy. He has so far received 3600 US dollars from Muguti in Chidau's office a week and a half ago, the total amount promised to him was 10 000 US Dollars. Even if you check you will note that the fuel that was used for Budiriro Demolitions was not Council fuel.
Your Excellency we also ropped in Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume, he initially resisted even after being instructed to enter the deal by Gomba. He then held a string of meetings with Muguti and Muguti confessed to us that he threatened him with ZACC and he has accepted the deal. When Mafume was then arrested by SACU, you can verify with just about everyone if Muguti and Chidau did not run around and made several phone calls to many Government officials and anti corruption people to try and secure his release, for the sake of their deal to demolish Budiriro and then move to their areas.
The Demolitions did go ahead Your Excellency and it sad that as both MDC and ZANU PF officials disown them, you are being accused of being inhumane yet you do not have anything to do with this deal. MDC A President Nelson Chamisa went to Budiriro and he also knows the truth that's why he exonerated his Councillors as they did not participate, while his Mayor did so under duress. As the international media talks all bad about the Country, it should be noted that the intention was not to leave people without shelter but it was a strategy to test how deep the waters can get and how big the fire will get in a neutral set up, for a letter financial deal.
Your Excellency, I have written this out of love for my country at a great personal risk given the fact that I myself have contributed in many ways to the Demolitions for financial gain.
If you are to send your team to investigate you may also need to check how much was paid to ZRP bosses and the fuel given to them by Muguti and Chidau through
Mazvimba and another male Council employee whose name I can not recall but he was a runner and go between as they did not want to depend on Council Police given that this was a private Demolition with little to nothing to do with Council. A certain Tongoona from council was also heavily involved in the later stages of the Demolitions and pocketed 1000 US dollars on the day of the Demolitions. Muguti had previously asked for Tongoona's money from Gomba in a meeting held at Chidau's office. 7 people were present in the board room and the phone was put on loud speaker.
I hope I find you well Your Excellency
Regards
From a young, faithful civil servant and entrepreneur
@danielItai_zw
This follows a letter that has been making rounds on social media implicating the former Mayor in the housing demolitions.
"The letter is fake and false, it seems two factions exist in ZANU-PF, one that is working with suspended Council officials to write fake statements in order to return corrupt Council officials to work and the other which is following government directives to say all arrested must stay away till cases are over. All municipal officials who are corrupt have a tendency to invite senior government leaders to help them in their causes by writing fake statements," said Gomba.
In addition, Gomba said both the residents and land barons were at fault in the Budiriro demolitions debacle, "both parties are guilty of whatever happened, our residents must not pretend that they don't know that those barons were crooks that led them to build on land not supposed to be built on.
However, Council was supposed to get land from central government to resettle those that were unfortunately crooked."
Below is the letter that has been making rounds on social media:
Open letter to the President
Att:
HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT MNANGAGWA
RE- *IT IS NEITHER MDC NOR ZANU PF BUT TWO INDIVIDUALS SET TO GET MILLIONS - EXPOSING WHAT YOUR OFFICIALS WILL NOT TELL YOU ABOUT THE BUDIRIRO
DEMOLITION SAGA*
Your excellency your person and your Party has been demonised beyond measure by many including international celebrities and organisations for the recent Budiriro Demolitions that left men, women and babies homeless during this rain season.
Your excellency, I pity you because neither you nor your Party are at fault here, not even the opposition MDC is at fault. As both parties play the blame game I have gathered that your officials are not coming out clean on the Budiriro Demolition Saga. In my official capacity I work closely with the Harare Provincial Development Coordinator Mr Tafadzwa Muguti and Harare Metropolitan Minister Oliver Chidau, I will thus expose them for the sole reason that they have brought shame to your name all for the sake of money.
Here's the true reason Budiriro was demolished.
We strategized and agreed that Budiriro should be used as a Guinea pig in order to test the waters. Budiriro was not our target per say, though Budiriro has political enemies like Godfrey Gomwe, the reason we demolished the houses there was to set a precedence, and if there's no much fire the Demolitions will then move to places were Muguti and Chidau will pocket Millions of US dollars without raising much suspicion.
I will explain further Your Excellency.
Forget the one Chitungwiza commercial stand that has been all over the media that was allegedly corruptly purchased by Muguti before having the Acting Town Clerk exonerate him under duress. Muguti has several residential open spaces in Chitungwiza that are currently under illegal occupation.
It does not end there your Excellency, You can task your people to find out if Muguti does not own Melfort farms in Ruwa under Goromonzi Rural District Council. These are large swathes of land, which he corruptly got but the area is currently occupied by illegal occupants.
Now the motivation Your Excellency is that Muguti has found a South African investor with the help of ex cabinet Minister Savior Kasukuwere and the only hindrance for a multi million dollar deal are the illegal occupants. This is why he is extremely desperate to set up a demolition precedence everywhere he could extend the same to the land he owns without raising eyebrows.
Your Excellency the same scenario applies to your minister Chidau who is also part of the deal.
For the avoidance of doubt and to prove this is not a social media smear campaign as I have a good working relationship with the minister , you can task your security details to confirm if Chidau does not possess large areas of land in Retreat area. They should also confirm if Chidau is not planning to set up a Madokero like village in the area working on model of fidelity housing, these are the fancy low density like houses in Harare South were thousands are paying thousands of US dollars on a monthly basis to fidelity and building classy houses. Your excellency let your inner security verify is Retreat land owned by Chidau is not occupied by illegal occupants and if he is desperate to have them chucked out so he can build his own Madokero village and fidelity housing scheme replica.
To achieve this, we discussed and concluded that it was suicidal to start with the land they own and we agreed that on the pritency of cleaning the City we start with Budiriro. We further strategized that when see that there's no much fire in Budiriro we will then proceed to areas owned by Muguti and Chidau so they can start work as soon as possible. If there's fire like we have witnessed, we will chill and go back on the drawing table.
Your Excellency if you are to verify do not send anyone from ZACC, maybe try SACU. 90% of ZACC investigators report to Muguti and Chidau and they are used to target perceived enemies. This process of capturing ZACC is financed by former Harare Mayor Hebert Gomba, envelopes containing between 5000 and 10 000 US dollars are collected almost on weekly basis at his house and are distributed to just about everyone at ZACC.
In the Budiriro Demolitions Your Excellency we were working with a council employee called Mazvimba and was key in strategy. He has so far received 3600 US dollars from Muguti in Chidau's office a week and a half ago, the total amount promised to him was 10 000 US Dollars. Even if you check you will note that the fuel that was used for Budiriro Demolitions was not Council fuel.
Your Excellency we also ropped in Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume, he initially resisted even after being instructed to enter the deal by Gomba. He then held a string of meetings with Muguti and Muguti confessed to us that he threatened him with ZACC and he has accepted the deal. When Mafume was then arrested by SACU, you can verify with just about everyone if Muguti and Chidau did not run around and made several phone calls to many Government officials and anti corruption people to try and secure his release, for the sake of their deal to demolish Budiriro and then move to their areas.
The Demolitions did go ahead Your Excellency and it sad that as both MDC and ZANU PF officials disown them, you are being accused of being inhumane yet you do not have anything to do with this deal. MDC A President Nelson Chamisa went to Budiriro and he also knows the truth that's why he exonerated his Councillors as they did not participate, while his Mayor did so under duress. As the international media talks all bad about the Country, it should be noted that the intention was not to leave people without shelter but it was a strategy to test how deep the waters can get and how big the fire will get in a neutral set up, for a letter financial deal.
Your Excellency, I have written this out of love for my country at a great personal risk given the fact that I myself have contributed in many ways to the Demolitions for financial gain.
If you are to send your team to investigate you may also need to check how much was paid to ZRP bosses and the fuel given to them by Muguti and Chidau through
Mazvimba and another male Council employee whose name I can not recall but he was a runner and go between as they did not want to depend on Council Police given that this was a private Demolition with little to nothing to do with Council. A certain Tongoona from council was also heavily involved in the later stages of the Demolitions and pocketed 1000 US dollars on the day of the Demolitions. Muguti had previously asked for Tongoona's money from Gomba in a meeting held at Chidau's office. 7 people were present in the board room and the phone was put on loud speaker.
I hope I find you well Your Excellency
Regards
From a young, faithful civil servant and entrepreneur
@danielItai_zw
Source - Daniel Itai, Harare, Zimbabwe
