adminProsper Dembedza
Herald Correspondent
A land audit in Dzivaresekwa Nehanda Housing Cooperative, which was instructed by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, is facing obstacles from former chairperson Andrew Marauka who is allegedly interfering with the process.
According to reports, Marauka recently disrupted an audit meeting organised by the Ministry to take account of the land he allegedly sold while in control of the cooperative.
Marauka and his former leadership are now facing allegations of selling land reserved for schools, industries and recreational facilities and pocketing large sums of money.
The current cooperative chairperson, Mr Simba Moyo, told The Herald that a meeting scheduled for August 28 which was authorised by the police, failed to take place after Marauka rushed to the venue before the meeting commenced and put a poster cancelling it without the consent of the leadership.
The Ministry recently instructed the cooperative leadership to organise land audit to establish the quantity of the land unprocedurally sold.
“The former leadership, as we speak, is busy converting industrial land and open spaces into residential stands which they are selling to home seekers and pocketing large sums of money,” said Mr Moyo.
He added that police were investigating the matter after his report.
“We have an instruction from the Ministry to organise a meeting for the audit and we are quite confident that the audit will unmask all the fraudulent practices that are being conducted by Marauka,” added Mr Moyo.
He further stated that Marauka’s unlawful cancellation of the August 28 meeting was against the law and it attracts a penalty.
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Small and Medium Enterprises Development in a letter of August 12 to the Cooperative, signed by Registrar of Cooperatives, had already invited the cooperative to prepare for the meeting.
According to the ministry, the issues to be discussed were to verify the membership list, status of alleged defaulters, financial statements, sales of land, all properties of the cooperative.
The ministry made it clear that any member who violated the audit process shall be guilty of breaking the law.
“According to the Cooperative Act Chapter (24:05) section (123) (c) anyone who further hinders this process shall be guilty of an offense as provided in the Act,” the ministry wrote.
Efforts to get a comment from Marauka were fruitless as his mobile phone was not reachable.
Online Reporter