adminThe MDC-T has publicly admitted that some of the riches were ill-gotten hence its decision to fire the councillors. The party is now pushing for the arrest of the dismissed councillors. It is now clear that the motive behind seeking public office by most MDC-T councillors was purely self aggrandisement as opposed to serving the people.
It will not be surprising to discover that some MDC-T Members of Parliament are equally after amassing wealth as opposed to serving the people. The electorate, we want to believe, has now learnt that in choosing representatives it might be important at times to go beyond the party one represents.
It has been a trend of most MDC-T councillors to use their positions to allocate themselves either council houses, as has been the case in Harare as well as commercial and residential stands. Most of these councillors are now aware that many of them will not be voted back into their positions come the next elections hence most of them are preparing for life after council.
In Bulawayo council is inviting tenders for the lease of 52 council shops in Iminyela, Mabutweni, Njube and Pelandaba and this is likely to spread to other suburbs where council has shops. Some of the tenants now facing eviction have been leasing the council shops for more than 50 years.
These tenants are demanding to be given the first option to buy the shops from council and their argument makes a lot of sense.
It has been the norm that sitting tenants of either commercial or residential property are given the first option to buy when the building is offered for sale. The same should happen to council, which has been collecting rentals from these sitting tenants, some for more than 50 years. Some of the tenants have in fact fully paid for the shops given the number of years they have been paying rentals to council.
Asked to comment on the council decision to invite tenders for the shops being operated by sitting tenants, the Mayor of Bulawayo, Clr Thaba Moyo, said the shops remained council property and the local authority therefore reserved the right to terminate the leases at any given time. It is a fact that the shops remain council property but what raises suspicion is the decision by council to invite new tenders when the operators are still capable of paying rentals.
The move, we feel, is a ploy by council to create a window for councillors to take over the shops. We have already stated that most MDC-T councillors are panicking and are using every opportunity available to prepare for life after council and Bulawayo councillors are no exception. The councillors want to hoodwink residents into believing they are inviting tenders when in fact they could have already allocated each other the shops.
In order to mislead residents and Government, the councillors might allocate the shops to their friends or relatives while they remain in the background. We want to commend the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Dr Ignatius Chombo for his timely intervention.
Dr Chombo has already instructed the Bulawayo City Council to stop inviting tenders for the lease of the shops saying sitting tenants should be given the first option to buy the shops. He said the council wanted to lease out the shops to new tenants so that they could be given the first option to buy the shops thereby prejudicing the old tenants who have been paying rentals for several years.
The Government should not allow daylight robbery of old tenants who have been supporting the council for years. It is possible that MDC-T councillors in other cities and towns are working on similar schemes to enrich themselves and it is therefore important for Government to stop this corruption.
The sitting tenants on their part should ensure that they honour the terms of the lease agreements so that councils have no excuses for evicting them or cancelling their leases.
Online Reporter