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Abigail Mawonde Herald Reporter
Residents of Whiteclife in Harare claim to have been duped out of $230 000 in trustee funds they had mobilised for the provision of water and sewer system.

Whitecliff is a settlement established by Government during Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle in 2006. An estimated 2 000 Whitecliff residents are living without water, sewer system and other basic amenities.

“After realising that responsible authorities were failing to provide us with water and to install the sewer system we managed to come up with a committee that was going to represent us in fostering development issues in our area,” said a resident, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We then selected committee members Passway Mubaiwa, Panasi Chingasiwe and Givemore Chinhanga during a meeting presided by the liaison officer at the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.”

The residents only identified the local government officer as Mr Nhoro.

“These three men were meant to be the go-between residents, contractors and the ministry which had facilitated the opening of a trust account with them.”

Residents agreed to contribute $45 monthly into the trust account.

“We started suspecting that we were being duped when the committee stopped giving us feedback on issues we had discussed and agreed would be implemented within a specific period of time,” said the source.

Documents in The Herald’s possession show that part of the money was abused when committee members approached a company called Markmore Plumbers for the provision of road designs even though the company’s trading papers were in shambles. It had neither a tax clearance certificate nor a vendor number as required by the law.

Markmore Plumbers in turn approached another company Hubit Technological System which specialises in air-conditioning and refrigeration in whose account they deposited $29 000 under unclear circumstances.

Hubit Technological Services director Mr Ranganai Mucharira confirmed in an interview with The Herald $29 000 was deposited into his company’s account

Mr Mubaiwa collected $13 703’ Of this amount, $10 000 was transferred to Markmore Plumbers, Engineer Nhemwa received $2 000 while $3 927 went towards bank charges and tax.

He has since written to the Whitecliff Residents Association clarifying his position in a letter dated November 11, 2014.

“Hubit Technological Systems does not do any road designs, we do air-conditioning and refrigeration. We do not have an Engineer A. Manezhu neither did he ever work for us.”

Residents are in the dark as to how the remainder of the money was used.