Online Reporter
IN yesterday’s edition of H-Metro we reported that Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume said the US$1 million splashed to buy a house in Ruwa by the Council’s medical aid fund was a GRAND THEFT exercise, disguised as an investment, by the people who took part in the deal.
We reported that Mafume also revealed that the title deeds of the property have not yet been received by the City of Harare.
He wondered why there was a stampede to buy a US$1 million house in Ruwa when the City’s employees, who needed treatment, were being turned away by doctors who were rejecting their Council’s medical aid cards because payment was being honoured by the Harare Municipal Medical Aid Society (HMMAS).
Mafume was addressing the Commission of Inquiry investigating the affairs of the City of Harare.
The Commission wanted to understand why the medical aid society, which serves municipal workers, had spent such a large amount of money on the property while the city’s employees struggled to access medical care.
Mafume said he attended HMMAS meetings to seek answers about the transaction, insisting his involvement was necessary because Council workers were being denied medical care while municipal funds were allegedly being misused.
He said Council workers were not getting treatment in hospitals, doctors were not accepting the medical aid, yet properties were are being bought without proper documentation.
He said in all this drama, a cool US$1 million was taken to buy a house in Ruwa and, to this day, the title deeds have not been transferred to the Council.
He claims that money for the investment was paid twice and there was no way this can be treated as an ordinary matter.
He used very strong words and phrases, including implying that the US$1 million “had been stolen and how can it be ordinary when people take US$1 million to buy a house in Ruwa.”
We agree with Mafume that US$1 million shouldn’t be allowed to just disappear.
Yes, the reality is that the money was used to buy the house in Ruwa but the question is that if the Council’s medical aid society needed to invest US$1 million in a house, should that house be in Ruwa?
Didn’t the Council get a number of other houses in Harare, which probably cost a lot cheaper than the money which they paid for their Ruwa investment?
Did it make sense for the Council’s medical aid society to splash US$1 million into an investment in a house in Ruwa when their workers, who should be beneficiaries of the fund’s money, were being denied access to medical treatment?
Did the officials, who decided that this was a good investment, believe that buying a house was more important than the lives of the medical society’s members, who found themselves in life-and-death situations when their medical aid cards were being rejected?
There are many questions related to this deal which need to be answered.
It just doesn’t sound right and justifies the Government’s decision to have this Commission of Inquiry.
dyton mupawaenda