Land saga sucks in City, Deeds Office staff

TINASHE MAKICHI

Top Harare City Council (HCC) official and some officials at the Deeds Office have been implicated in a suspected intricate web that has been illegally grabbing land measuring 27 000 hectares in Grange Township.

HCC officials led by Harare mayor, Herbert Gomba (who is in remand custody) are facing allegations of using a fake title deed to corruptly gain control of a piece of land at Grange Township.

The title deed Number 706/2015 used to claim ownership of the land belonged to Adam Mtisi Emam Trust.

Business Times is informed that this was done to gain control and ownership of the land without following procedure of which the title deed used belonged to another land in the same area.

The Deeds Office represented by Absolom Magwere in a letter dated September 17, 2018 notified the Director of Works that the same land in question was already occupied.

“Be advised that the above land is registered in the name of Adam Mtisi Emam Trust under deed of transfer 706/2015,” reads part of the letter written by Absolom Magwere to HCC Director of Works Isiah Chawatama.

The issue then came to light when Chawatama in a letter dated June 2, 2020 proposed the subdivision of the land in question only to be notified that the land was already occupied with a title deed in place.

“Attached is a layout plan that shows the initial proposals for the subdivision of the remainder of Stand 1 of the Grange Township comprising 38 stands.

However these stands are eventually reduced to seven stands due to the nature of the site,” Chawatama said.

The land scam has triggered an investigation by the President’s Special Anti-Corruption Unit (SACU) which unearthed that the title deed for the land in question was rather fake and was only corruptly issued by some officials in the Deeds Office to allegedly facilitate the theft of council land in Grange.

Investigations by the unit showed that some senior officials including Gomba were allegedly selling residential stands and there is a list of beneficiaries.

In this case the City Council is said to have lost huge sums of money prompting the investigation.

SACU head Thabani Mpofu confirmed the investigation without disclosing more details.

Other documents gleaned by Business Times also unearthed that Gomba who is currently in custody over other corruption allegations, allocated himself about 75 stands in Tafara Township of Caledonia and the matter is already under investigation.

Another Councillor Lucky Mukunguma is being accused of allocating himself about 76 stands in the same area without following proper procedure. “Allocations are done by our Housing Department in Mbare then come to the Housing Committee for deliberations. And this committee is chaired by Councillor Hammy Madzingira.

You are also supposed to have obtained a report from the Housing Director.

From there the report will have to come to the Finance and Development Committee which I chair. I haven’t seen such a report for pricing,” Mukunguma said after being contacted for comment.

Already, over a dozen Harare City Council officials, including human resources and former housing director Matthew Marara, City town planner Samuel Nyabeze and surveyor Munyaradzi Bowa have been arrested on a string of allegations that include criminal abuse of office and corruption.

Recently, Marara and 13 other employees were suspended by council to allow investigations into corruption allegations.

A senior police officer, Superintendent Naboth Nyachega was arrested last week on allegations of abuse of office and bribery connected with the earlier sale of stands worth US$1m in Kuwadzana.

A manhunt has since been launched for a fourth council official, Charles Sigauke, who was employed as senior clerical officer at Marlborough District Offices who has since gone into hiding.

Last week, City of Harare director of housing Admore Nhekairo was arrested in connection with the case, and is due to appear in court today with Supt Nyachega and the latest two council officials arrested.

 Nhekairo allegedly approved the allocation of the Westlea stands.

Nyachega, who is also attached to the CID commercial crimes unit, was arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission while the council officials, including Nhekairo, were picked up by the police in conjunction with SACU in the Office of the President and Cabinet.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button