Staff Reporter

The Chitungwiza Municipality Acting Mayor, Councillor Mutimbanyoka allayed fears over the alleged sale of the Mayoral Mansion Stand.

The Chitungwiza Municipality was an opposition led council for close to three decades and had been associated with serious corruption allegations, mismanagement and poor service delivery.

Former Mayor, Lovemore Maiko was expelled from MDC-T which resulted in him losing his Mayoral post. After  winning  a  by-election, he  was  later  suspended  by  the  Minister  of  Local  Government and Public Works, July  Moyo  for  gross  misconduct, incompetence and wilful violation of  the  law. Resultantly a ZANU PF Councillor, Kiven Mutimbanyoka was appointed as the Acting Mayor.

During a presser yesterday, Councillor Mutimbanyoka  said  that, “ land  was  not sold  by the  council, we  do not  have paperwork  for  that  alleged  Mayoral  Mansion  Stand,  the land  is  there. As a Mayor during my tenure, I solved illegal land selling problems by land barons.”

The Acting Mayor’s sentiments came amidst a serious disapproval and outcry by residents associations such as Chitungwiza Residents Association (CHITREZ) and Zimbabwe National Association of Residents Trusts (ZINOART) which attended the presser.

A member of one of the residents associations, Obert Matsika advised the Acting Mayor to stop any process of selling the said stand on condition that it was against residents’ interest.

It was revealed on the meeting that the opposition Councillors who sit in the Council meeting are acting as secretariats of land barons who will sell stands after getting inside information on the availability of a stand or open space. Although there were no names of the councillors who are alleged to have sold the said stand, the acting Mayor notified that he knew the names of those involved.

A source who spoke to this publication on condition of anonymity said that CCC Councillors, Darlington Musonza (ward 12), Fungai Magadzire (ward 15) ,Question Dingo (ward 23) and Stanley  Wakarikandwa (ward  11)  teamed up and  sold a mayoral stand located opposite Zuva Service Station at Makoni shopping centre in Chitungwiza. Furthermore, the source added that CCC Councillors were involved in illegal land selling, mismanagement of public funds and corruption.

Councillor Mutimbanyoka said that a stakeholder meeting would be held soon to deliberate on the Mayoral Mansion Stand.