The Harare city councilors passed a resolution to suspend the Town
Clerk after he was implicated in a scandal that saw the City council
loosing over 100 beasts. The councilors have so far managed to recover
50 beasts which were hidden in a popular Harare businessman's farm. The
City Council Audit committee (comprised of selected councilors) is
currently investigating this matter. CHRA, Transparency International
Zimbabwe (TIZ) and other Residents Associations have also called for an
audit of council assets and revenue generation projects. The city of
Harare owns a farm and cattle; a project which is supposed to relieve
the residents of the burden of financing service delivery through
exorbitant rates. However, the council has lost quite a lot of revenue
through such corruption at town house by the council workers and
previous commissions.
The Harare city council has been rocked by massive corruption since the
reign of commissions appointed by Minister Chombo, and popular names
are being implicated in some of the scandals being unearthed. However,
the move by Minister Chombo to block the suspension of the Town clerk
is obviously going to hamper investigations into these scandals. CHRA
notices that Minister Chombo has on one hand protected the allegedly
corrupt Town clerk; and on one hand reversed the councilors' decision
to award themselves free cell phones and residential stands. By so
doing, Minister Chombo appears to be protecting the residents when in
fact he is protecting certain individuals who may have benefited from
corruption at Town House. CHRA categorically puts it on record that the
residents do not approve the councilors' proposal to get free
residential stands and cell phones, but they also demand that Minister
Chombo should not get into the way of investigations taking place at
Town House by blocking the suspension of the town clerk. In that regard
CHRA demands the following;
A full audit of Council assets and revenue generation projects
Public disclosure of financial statements reflecting the
performance of council revenue generation projects for the past 5
years.
Full swing investigations into the corrupt activities at Town House.
In tandem with the letter and spirit of the Global Political
Agreement, whoever shall be found responsible or involved in the
corruption shall be brought to account irregardless of his or her
political standing.
Massive reduction of rates, levies and tariffs against the residents.
Council must get rid of extravagant benefits for councilors and council workers.
Minister Chombo must respect the councilors' decision to suspend the Town clerk until investigations are completed.
Meanwhile the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) urges the
city council workers to desist from taking advantage of the lack of
experience on the part of the councilors; to smuggle into the budget
extravagant benefits like hefty salaries and allowances. CHRA notices
that this was a deliberate attempt to expose the elected councilors as
anti-people and selfish yet the real enemies of the residents are the
council workers and their Minister. Nonetheless CHRA urges the
councilors to be vigilant and guard against being taken advantage of.
CHRA remains steadfast in demanding democratic local governance and the
provision of quality as well as affordable municipal services.