Editorial Comment: Gweru looters must face the music Saviour Kasukuwere

Gweru City Council has been providing content for negative headlines in recent months.

Until mid last month, there was a total system failure in what must be the City of Progress. Prior to that some councillors were personalising council community centres and clubs by collecting monthly rentals which they pocketed. Others sold council property, including river sand, for personal gain. In addition, senior council workers and councillors were conniving to pay each other hefty allowances and vehicle loans.

As this happened junior workers were unpaid in months, garbage went uncollected and roads were not being rehabilitated.

To demonstrate that the wheels had completely come off in Gweru, the workers’ committee started, sometime in July, to actually collect council money and paying themselves salaries straight from revenue clerks’ cash vaults.

They called themselves Boko Haram after the Nigerian rebel group that has wreaked terror in the West African country through abductions and murder of civilians. Like their Nigerian equivalents, Boko Haram Gweru went unpunished simply because there was no council to do so.

Earlier in April, workers had “confiscated” a council vehicle that was to ferry councillors and managers to the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair. They drove it to Gweru Central Police Station for safekeeping. At around the same time, workers were arbitrarily disconnecting water supplies to consumers who were defaulting.

Lawlessness in local governance cannot grow worse than that. A serious government cannot allow that sort of anarchy to prevail. Therefore, we applaud the Minister of Local Government, Public Housing and National Housing, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere, for stepping in by suspending Gweru Mayor, Councillor Hamutendi Kombayi, his deputy Artwell Manyorauta and 14 other councillors. In their place, Minister Kasukuwere appointed a caretaker commission to run the affairs of council. Former Masvingo Town Clerk Tsungai Mhangami is leading the commission.

When Mhangami and his team were put in temporary charge, Gweru residents and the workers’ committee welcomed them, hoping they would put the Midlands capital back to order.

Yes, Clr Kombayi and his council appealed to the High Court, and won their case. The court found that the statute that Minister Kasukuwere relied upon in removing the council from office, Section 114 of the Urban Councils Act contravened Section 278 of the Constitution and set aside their ouster. The minister has indicated that his office would appeal against the Justice Nokuthula Moyo ruling.

While the case plays out in court, we take note of an interim report by Mhangami detailing the extent of the malaise that Clr Kombayi presided over and appears committed to maintaining.

Mhangami said councillors approved hefty allowances for senior council employees, permitted housing development in undesignated zones, sold otherwise high-value residential stands for a song and increased the council wage bill to exceed revenue collection by $400,000.

“They were giving themselves allowances which are astronomic with some getting as high as $1,000 water allowance. Some were getting $250 transport allowance approved by the councillors and management. Where in the country does one use water for $1,000 a month unless it is for commercial use. To make matters worse, they were collecting cash and were not paying for the water and they owe council huge amounts in unpaid water bills and rates,” Mhangami said.

This is what his commission has been able to report at this stage, three weeks after they assumed their duties to clean up Gweru. We think Clr Kombayi and his council are ashamed of themselves for presiding over the rot.

The good thing is what the minister, through Mhangami and his team has done or is doing to put a stop to a clear kleptocracy that was feasting on council property and revenue while residents suffered poor delivery.

The commission has stopped unplanned housing development, halted the cheap sale of stands at leafy Kopje and banned councillors from attending training outside Gweru.

We expect more thorough investigations and disclosures to be made.

However, disclosures of malpractice only without the necessary personal sanctions being put to bear on the corrupt would serve no purpose.

Gweru residents have suffered enough. We expect them to demand that Clr Kombayi and his team be held responsible, personally, for any thefts of council property and money that happened under their watch or any illegal activities they orchestrated for personal aggrandisement. Councillors who stole council sand and sold it and pocketed the money should be arrested and hauled before the courts. Those who seized council club houses and community centres, hired them out and took the money committed fraud. They must be arrested for that.

We, and Gweru residents agree with us, hopefully, are demanding stronger action against the culprits. If that does not happen, councils and other corrupt public officials out there would see no deterrent in committing crimes and engaging in corrupt activities.

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