The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
THERE was drama during the council in-committee meeting of the Bulawayo City Council last Wednesday when council management attempted to reverse a service industry bay in Luveve lease awarded to Ward 28 councillor, Kidwell Mujuru.
Clr Mujuru, who is the only Zanu-PF councillor had been awarded the lease through council’s sub-committee on allocation of stands and premises. Councillors, however, returned an audit report and council confidential minutes to council management and walked out of the council in-committee meeting alleging bribery on the part of management.
In the initial shortlist Clr Mujuru had been adjudicated third with one Mr Wonder Siziba having been awarded the lease. However, after deliberations and reviewing of all the applications, Clr Mujuru was then awarded the lease. The matter was later handled by council’s internal audit section who questioned the awarding of the lease to Clr Mujuru and implored that Mr Siziba be given the lease. Councillors have, however, accused council management of trying to gate crush Mr Siziba amid bribery allegations.
“Audit received an anonymous letter and later an email querying and alleging bribery and corruption in interviews involving applicants for six tendered sites including Local Authority site 1252 Luveve. The unprocedural award of Local Authority Site 1252 Luveve resulted in reputational and administrative prejudice to the City of Bulawayo as well as financial and business prejudice to Mr Wonder Siziba who had come first in the adjudication process,” reads part of an audit report.
Mr Siziba reportedly lost out to Clr Mujuru because he did not reside in the said suburb.
“Clr Edwin Ndlovu emphasised the issue of policy as the bone of contention in this matter. He cited a policy lapse which allowed Clr Mujuru to enter into a lease agreement with the city when he had actually changed the use. Clr Ndlovu indicated that it was not Clr Mujuru’s fault that his lease came written brick moulding but the fault of council. He then proposed tightening up of the tender system to avoid recurrence of such issues. He further said the committee should look at how these policies could be strengthened without victimising the successful tenderers,” reads a council report.
However, councillors on Wednesday threatened a walk out and returned the audit report together with council confidential minutes to management in protest, questioning why management was insisting that Mr Siziba be awarded the lease.
“Normal procedure will be that the lease is reversed and retendered but what caught the eye of councillors was the insistence that Mr Siziba be awarded the lease, clearly there is something amiss there. Management was told to go put their house in order because the report exposed them hence councillors handed back the audit report and the confidential report in protest, saying they would only deliberate on a report that has the correct council policies,” said a councillor who declined to be named.
Last month, the BCC procurement officer- Ms Joyce Sandra Moyo- was allegedly found with dirty hands amid risks of being prosecuted after an internal audit revealed a number of irregularities that include buying councillors’ favour in the awarding of a commercial stand lease, fraud, mendacity and general abuse of office.
She was alleged to have used her influence as a procurement officer to flout a number of tender regulations and also had council workers colluding for her to be eventually awarded the lease, which is portion A of Lot 3, subdivision A and B Waterworks Grant Company.
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