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Manicaland Correspondents
THOUSANDS of youths, who were swindled of $400 000 meant for stands development in Chipinge town, are appealing to President Mnangagwa to set up a commission of enquiry.

The youths have since formed Chipinge Youths Housing Scheme to carry out an audit to determine how the money was used by the former Zanu-PF youth leadership between 2016 and 2017.

The stands, which were meant to be allocated to the youths, were paid for through Causpen Investments (Pvt) Ltd, a Harare company that was managing the stands.

The stands were part of the 350 hectares of Retveil Farm in Chipinge that was set aside in 2016 for the establishment of villages for the youths and the 50 hectares of land that Chipinge Rural District Council had also allocated for the same purpose at Checheche Growth Point to benefit more than 10 000 youths.

Chipinge Youths Housing Scheme has also conducted two verification meetings with the affected youths, one at town council hall and the other at Retveil Farm on July 28, 2018 and thousands of youths attended both meetings and produced receipts as proof of payment for the stands.

Chipinge Youths Housing Scheme vice chairperson Mr Ashirai Mawere told The Herald that a lot was being done to expose the stands scam and reveal the perpetrators of the fraudulent exercise.

“I can confirm that so far, we have held two verification meetings with the affected youths,” he said. “Several youths from all corners of Chipinge had paid money through Causpen Investments (Pvt) Limited for the development of stands but, surprisingly, the company has since closed its local branch and the two employees who worked there are also complaining of non-payment of salaries and have reportedly sought help from the labour courts.

“We are now taking the initiative upon ourselves to establish where our money went instead of developing our stands.”

Cde Mawere appealed to President Mnangagwa to intervene through the Anti-Corruption Commission and conduct thorough audits into the scam and bring the culprits to book.

“We strongly believe that the President will help us considering his hardline stance against corruption in Zanu-PF and in Zimbabwe as a whole,” he   said.

One of the victims, Cde Prosper Sithole, said the time had come for corrupt party and community leaders to be expelled and jailed.

“The time for action is now. How can we develop as a nation when people can steal and get away with it? Lessons should be learnt from this case,” he  said.