The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Municipal Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission has said it has no pending investigation against the Bulawayo City Council before calling on anyone with information regarding any form of underhand dealing to approach the commission so that investigations can be carried out.
The revelations by the commission come at a time when the local authority has gone for months of back and forth accusations between councillors and officials over corruption allegations. This even saw expelled former deputy mayor, Mr Tinashe Kambarami and a few of his lieutenants attempting to expel the city’s town clerk Mr Christopher Dube, accusing him of among other things, underhand dealings.
However, Zacc spokesperson Mr John Makamure told Sunday News that the commission has not received any report regarding Bulawayo Council nor were there any pending investigations regarding the local authority.
“As it stands we have nothing on BCC. I have just checked with our head of investigations and he has confirmed that. What I must emphasise is that we operate in such a manner where we depend on reports from members of the public and tip-offs from people within the said systems.
“In the case of BCC there is no report or tip-off that we received hence us not having any ongoing or pending investigation but our call is that if anyone has information relating to corruption activities within the local authority they must furnish us with the information and we will do our job. What is important is that there are no sacred cows when we do our investigations, all we are interested in is weeding out corrupt elements,” said Mr Makamure.
A couple of weeks ago Zacc chairperson, Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo revealed that the commission had now set sights on cleansing local authorities of corrupt officials, with Chitungwiza, Harare and Victoria Falls topping the investigations list.
Justice Matanda-Moyo said the net was closing in on all council officials implicated in graft, with Zacc having signed papers to investigate Victoria Falls Town Clerk Ronnie Dube, who allegedly allocated himself 15 000 hectares of land.
Zacc also picked up Chitungwiza housing director Hazel Sithole for interviews over a land scandal. Harare City Council has numerous cases of corruption, including one in which Kuwadzana district officer Mrs Betty Mbara allocated stands to her son, Justin Mazodzore, and daughter-in- law Alice Mandivenga who is based in Australia and does not meet the city’s waiting list criteria.
In June, it was revealed that four Bulawayo city councillors reportedly embarked on a Harare trip of shame after a prospective parking management company allegedly pampered them with five-star hotel junkets among other goodies.
The trip was suspected to be part of a plot by the company to sway the vote in its favour for a car parking management tender in Bulawayo. Evidence gathered by Sunday News revealed that the quartet was booked into a Harare hotel (name withheld) and all hotel expenses, which amounted to $1 860 were met by the parking company.
