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Minister Kasukuwere

Until the 2013 elections, Bulawayo had a history of being run by arguably the country’s cleanest and most responsible councils.

Whereas their counterparts in Harare, Mutare and Gweru were often found to be corrupt and unprofessional in their stewardship of council affairs, those in Bulawayo were always upright. While councils in Harare, Gweru and Mutare were spending millions building mansions for their executive mayors in the 1990s, Bulawayo City Council was judicious to realise that such spending was an unnecessary drain on its revenue.  Whereas some councillors in Harare were personally grabbing council-owned houses from elderly widows and orphans in Glen Norah, Highfield and other high density suburbs some three years ago, Bulawayo councillors were happy to let residents renting council homes live peacefully.

Whereas Harare City Council was, soon after dollarisation in 2009, approving five-figure salaries for their town clerk, little Gwanda Town Council doing likewise, Bulawayo City Council had their top officials on more modest four-figure perks.

It was no surprise therefore that the city of Bulawayo performed well on good governance rankings.

But the crop of councillors that was elected in 2013 has brought much corruption, bad governance and accompanying disrepute to the City of Kings and Queens. Of the 29 councillors in the city, only five were recently found to be diligent servants of the people, untainted by corruption. The rest have been in a race to acquire land and other properties cheaply and corruptly while service delivery continues to suffer.

The Government had to intervene a few months ago, the first time it has done so in Bulawayo. Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Saviour Kasukuwere sent a team to investigate the goings-on in the city and came up with a report. He was in the city on Tuesday and announced the Government’s decision to suspend five councillors — Gift Banda, Charles Moyo, Mzama Dube, Rueben Matengu and James Sithole.

Minister Kasukuwere revealed that the councilors owe council more than $662 299 emanating from land deals hence the decision to suspend the quintet. In addition, a small group of councillors was railroading key decisions with no regard to their colleagues and council staff. The Government would constitute an independent tribunal in the next two weeks to look into the rot.

“The report shows that most councillors in Bulawayo have come in to accumulate stands at the expense of the people they serve,” said Minister Kasukuwere.

“It seems like councillors think that they have the right to every property that is available.  Councillors have been allocated land for housing, public convenience, open space, agricultural land, commercial space, school and crèche stands, flea market stands and brick moulding zones. To make matters worse, most councillors have not made an effort to pay for the land resulting in council owing over half a million dollars on the property they have acquired.”

He said the Government was unhappy with BCC awarding leases of up to 99 years yet the average length of leases in urban areas is 40 years and shorter. Looking at the five councillors who have been suspended, it is very easy to identify who the real architect of the shady deals is and Minister Kasukuwere has done a good thing sanctioning them. We applaud the Affirmative Action Group (AAG) and Bulawayo Progressive Residents’ Association (BPRA) for blowing the whistle on the corruption at council.

They raised concern over Clr Banda’s acquisition of 3,5 hectares of prime land near Ascot Racecourse for a measly $130 000. Also, they raised issues with the acquisition of two blocks of land in Parklands — 3,7ha and 2,3ha at $184 000 and $112 000 respectively by Clrs James Sithole and Charles Moyo. AAG actually went to the High Court last year seeking an order to have the council dissolved over graft allegations. The empowerment lobby withdrew the case this year but they had already made a loud statement on bad governance at City Hall.

We wait to see the tribunal appointed and given the mandate to look into the matters concerning the suspended five.  We most fervently hope that stronger punishment would be meted on the five for putting self-interest first ahead of leading council for the betterment of residents and ratepayers.

There is a likelihood that Clrs Banda, Sithole and Moyo used their influence over fellow councillors and council officials to rubber stamp the acquisitions, which is immoral and smacks of corruption.

Residents demand that the Government reverses the deal involving Clr Banda at Ascot Racecourse where reports say development has started. If it is established, as many believe, that he bought that piece of land at below market price and in an unprocedural manner, Bulawayo residents would be justified to demand that council repossesses it.  The Parklands stands must be returned to council as well because they were obtained illegitimately.

The murky Ascot and Parklands land grab is actually a part of the dozens that the five councillors may have taken over under opaque circumstances over the past three years. If criminality is established, police should move in to investigate and the corrupt face the music.

The point must be hammered home that councillors and other elected persons are in those offices to deliver service diligently to the electorate, not to abuse that mandate to enrich themselves while those who put them in those positions have sewer lines bursting in their homes, drive on potholed road and have irregular water supplies.