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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter

The Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission (ZACC) has unearthed cases of massive corruption and misdemeanour in stands allocations involving Chitungwiza councillors and officials working in cahoots with land barons.

The information gathered by the anti-graft body will form part of the evidence to be used in courts of law in the prosecution of corruption cases.

This comes as Chitungwiza municipality indicated last week that it had stopped all land allocations as it seeks to rationalise and verify offer letters that have been issued, most of which are now set to be investigated by ZACC.

Investigations show that several councillors, including mayor Mr Lovemore Maiko, and senior council officials worked in cahoots with land barons and other persons outside council to fleece the municipality through unprocedural allocation of land in reserved areas.

Some of the investigations date back several years and led to the arrest of the late former councillor Frederick Mabamba.

Another case ZACC is seized with involves suspected land baron Philip Guyo, who is currently embroiled in a land wrangle with several people including Johanne Masowe WeChishanu apostolic sect, after he allegedly tried to elbow them out of a land that they had been using as their shrine.

The apostolic sect has resisted the eviction, arguing that they had been duly paying rentals to council over the past nine years and reserved the right to be considered should there be a proposed change of use.

The sect, led by Madzibaba Meck Gawu, has also approached the High Court suing Chitungwiza Municipality over its apparent inaction to stop suspected land barons from interfering on its land.

Zacc spokesperson, Commissioner John Makamure confirmed the development, but he could not give specific details for fear of compromising investigations.

“Yes, we have several that we are investigating,” he said.

“Arrests have been made in some of the cases and many more are at different stages of investigation. I will not go into specifics, but suffice to say several councillors and officials are being caught with their hands in the cookie jar, thereby comprising service delivery.”

In an interview yesterday, Chitungwiza acting town clerk, Mrs Evangelista Machona, said they had since stopped all land allocations as they verify legitimacy of some offer letters that had been issued by some of their officials.

“So far we have stopped all the allocations of stands as we are verifying a number of offer letters that were issued irregularly,” she said.

“Again, this is also compounded by all other activities like plan approval and construction until we finish the verification exercise.

“In cases of illegal construction, we have been issuing stop development and prohibition orders.”

In an interview, Madzibaba Gawu said Mr Guyo tried to evict them saying the place had been turned into a residential area notwithstanding they had been paying rentals to council.

Madzibaba Gawu reaffirmed the position in an affidavit he deposed in a pending court cases his lawyers filed before the High Court.

“We were surprised to see some people pegging stands on our leased premises,” reads the court papers.

“They were erecting a beacon on our piece of land and they told us that they had permission of the Chitungwiza Municipality to do so. They announced to us that the entire place was now reserved for residential stands.”

Reports also indicate that two people confronted Mr Guyo at Chigovanyika Business Centre last week after it emerged that they had each paid for a single stand.

Mr Guyo declined to comment on the issue and demanded proof of the allegations.

Recently, police said they had completed investigations into cases involving Mr Guyo, Clr Maiko, Kudakwashe John and works director, Engineer David Duma.

It is alleged that Guyo, who owns Metal Hill Company, allegedly connived with Clr John — who is the public works committee chairperson — to ensure that he got land without subjecting it to a competitive bidding as prescribed by the Urban Councils Act.