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Outrage over dodgy Bulawayo council land deals

by Bianca Mlilo
14 Apr 2016 at 06:33hrs | Views
THE Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) has called for all city councillors to be investigated for alleged abuse of office after they approved a deal for two of their colleagues to acquire two blocks of high-value residential stands with a combined value of nearly $300,000.

In a statement, BPRA co-ordinator Rodrick Fayayo said they had engaged lawyers to map the way forward and would also lobby the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government and the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing to institute a forensic audit to prevent councillors and other officials from abusing their positions to enrich themselves at the expense of the public.

He said the city's legal officer had advised against misinterpretation of a government circular relating to privileges for councillors on residential and commercial stands, saying this could create problems despite a full council meeting approving the acquisition of the stands.

Ward 7 councillor, James Sithole and his Ward 9 counterpart Charles Moyo applied and were awarded town house stands in Parklands suburb measuring 3,7 hectares and 2,3 hectares valued at $184,000 and $112,000 respectively.

Fayayo said most councillors are not gainfully employed but can afford to buy properties worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, raising questions about how they managed to raise those huge sums of money.

"BPRA is concerned that the latest development may be a sign of rent seeking and abuse of office by councillors who are using their time in office to enrich themselves instead of representing residents and advancing the development of Bulawayo.

"BPRA has in the past received complaints from residents that councillors were taking over public toilets and had (also) assumed ownership of car parks and housing stands. This latest development is an indication that all these concerns have been genuine, and that there's a need to ensure that councillors aren't corruptly accumulating properties.

"Last year there were reports that the Deputy Mayor Councillor Gift Banda had acquired 3,5 hectares of land for the construction of town houses. This led to a public outcry after there were allegations that the land, part of Ascot Racecourse, had been bought for less than its actual value," Fayayo said.

Reached for comment, Clr Moyo yesterday said: "I went through the proper procedure in getting that two-hectare stand (for $112,000), everything went through committee. First I went to the allocation of stands committee, then the finance and development committee and lastly to full council meeting. I'm now awaiting a resolution but the process was completed on April 6, 2016.

"I've a company and I'm the managing director there, so that's where the money to pay for the stand will come from. These BPRA people are against an MDC-run council. They must come clean, form and register their own political organisation."

He said in his three years in office, this was the first property that he had acquired.

"And mind you the government in its circular didn't set a minimum measurement for these stands but someone wants to make noise over a two-hectare stand which was bought and not looted," said Clr Moyo.

Clr Sithole declined to comment and referred all questions to the mayor, Martin Moyo.

The Mayor said: "Getting a stand is the right of every citizen and we allocated those stands to the councillors because they're ordinary citizens as well so we granted them the stands as ordinary citizens. The said abuse of office is just a perception by BPRA because all procedure was followed and that information is in the public domain. I don't know how he'll raise the money, that's his personal responsibility because at the end of the day, the payment will have to be made."

According to council documents, the Parklands stands were set aside for the development of town houses.

Source - chronicle
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