Residents get stands for 'free' and sell them for a fortune

In a pointer towards massive corruption in Gwanda, the Councillor for Ward 4 in Gwanda Town Mr Mduduzi Malaba Ncube claims that scores of people were allocated stands by the previous Council and no cent was paid for them yet they went on to be disposed off for thousands of dollars.

Councillor Ncube was speaking at a public meeting convened by Gwanda Agenda at the weekend to discuss service delivery by council in the town. According to Ncube the new ZANU PF dominated Council went on a massive audit of how council funds were leaking off the council revenue collection base when it was discovered that scores of residential and commercial stands had been issued to people who did not pay back a single cent to council by the previous MDC dominated Council.

More shocking was the revelation that most of those stands were quickly disposed of for thousands of dollars before any developments were done. 200m2 Residential stands in Gwanda's medium and low density suburbs are being sold privately for up to $4000 while commercial stands are fetching up to $10 000.

Ncube's statement was confirmed by former councillor Vusani Mhlanga who concurred that all stands in the Spitzkop North Extension a medium density suburb in the town were never paid for. Mhlanga could not explain why and how the stands were issued without payments to council only begging the current council to stop throwing the blame on the previous council but approach them for advice. Mhlanga incidentally threw all the blame on the council management led by out going Town Clerk Mr Gilbert Mlilo.

"Instead of you guys blaming us as former councillors and accusing us you must come to us for advice because we know that the council management always operates on its own and will destroy you," said Mhlanga.

In trying to defend the previous council which he led, former Mayor Lionel De Necker blamed the whole issue of new councillors attacking the out going councillors on the lack of a handover takeover exercise between the councils. He also blamed the council management for manipulating council, doing things outside council resolutions and hiding vital information from council. In his reaction De Necker could neither confirm nor deny the accusation that the stands were indeed issued without payments.

In a follow up to the councillor's accusation on the stands, this paper managed to establish that indeed stands were being allocated willy nilly by the previous council and very little money recovered by council. Information gathered also points to some councillors also involving themselves in the stands deal. A prime commercial stand in the town's CBD that is currently being developed by a prominent Gwanda investor was sold to him by the former Mayor De Necker. Unconfirmed reports also suggest that several of the former councillors did indeed own more than two or three stands which they disposed of at a fortune.

Responding to a question from Nkululeko Khoza who was one of the panellists on why council was failing to allocate land for orderly parking of the numerous haulage trucks that were parking randomly in the town, Councillor Ncube indicated that council had allocated a piece of land to an investor for that purpose but the investor is failing to effect the development. Ncube indicated that the investor concerned was also under council audit on how he was allocated the prime stand without proof of enough funding to do the required project. Ncube said council was engaging the developer with an aim of re possessing the piece of land from him and allocating it to people with the money to develop the land.

The Municipality of Gwanda has for a long-time been suffering from a financial crisis yet it is one of the few local authorities that still has vast land that it is allocating out as both residential and commercial stands. According to the Urban Councils Act all monies that are generated from the sale of stands must be put in a separate estates account to be used for all further land developments in the town. The funds realised in the estates account can be borrowed by council for other uses at a premium and returned to the account in the shortest possible time.

Due to its financial constraints the local authority a few months back had to dispose of some land to Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Obert Mpofu to settle an outstanding water account with ZINWA. Under normal circumstances the money should have gone into the estates account before being lent out to the water account through a council resolution. Reports however indicate that the money was paid straight from the Minister to ZINWA which further compromises the administration of the Council's Estates Account.