Chitown surveyor, ex-town clerk up for abuse of office

Prosper Dembedza Herald Correspondent

Chitungwiza Municipality surveyor Henry Kandawasvika and former town planner Rosemary Maridza have appeared in court facing criminal abuse of office charges.

They appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje who remanded them out of custody on $100 000 bail each.

The court heard that sometime in 2019, Maridza the then town planner at Chitungwiza Municipality unprocedurally created a site plan for 30 commercial stands numbered from 60189 to 60218 in Unit G, Makoni Business Centre, Chitungwiza.

According to the court papers, this land was reserved for an open space on the Chitungwiza Municipality layout plan and is State land requiring Ministerial authority for a change of reservation as provided for in Section 26 (3) of the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act.

It is alleged that Maridza further did not adhere to Section 43 of the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act which provides that, subdivision of State land or Communal Land for Public, industrial, commercial, residential or similar purposes shall be referred to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, who shall not approve the proposed layout plan until in the case of State land, the local authority concerned has been consulted and come up with a resolution to that effect.

Thereafter Kandawasvika and Maridza made false representations on verification forms that the stands existed on the Chitungwiza layout plan and that they were planned for commercial use yet the area was reserved as an open space.

The State alleges that by so doing the accused failed to adhere to the Municipality land policy which stipulates that in giving an allocation memorandum to the housing department, they must inter alia give a true representation if the procedures were followed religiously.

It is the State’s case that subsequently the unprocedurally created stands were submitted to Hazel Sithole who is suspended Chitungwiza Director of Housing who is already on remand proceeded to allocate the stands to hand-picked individuals disregarding the prescriptions of the Municipality’s housing policy and her job description which enjoins the Housing Director to inter alia adhere to the following procedures when allocating commercial stands, competitive bidding process with minimum offers determined by Council, submission of adjudication outcome to Finance Committee for information and awarding following existing procurement procedures.