Heads to roll at Mutare City Council

Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Manicaland Bureau
HEADS are set to roll at Mutare City Council after a forensic audit instituted last year reportedly unearthed massive corruption in land allocations, implicating a number of senior managers within the institution.

Speaking at a council budget consultative meeting with business on Monday, town clerk Mr Joshua Maligwa said 90 percent of council employees were corrupt and the report implicated many workers, including those in management.

“About 90 percent of the 1 300 people here (at council) are involved in shady deals, he said.

“The forensic land audit is ready and about to be presented to council,” he said.

“There are so many heads which are going to roll. The report is bad news for the city, but once its handed over to council, we will be taking action.”

Mr Maligwa said corruption cases involving land had prejudiced council of millions of dollars, which were supposed to be included in the 2019 budget.

“This budget should have been bigger because we were supposed to own our properties, but this is not so because of the corruption scandals which went on here,” he said.

“They are still there, but they are doing it under the cover of the darkness. But we are following them up. We are very much aware that the cancerous behaviour and conduct is still among our employees. But it is only a matter of time before we catch up with them. If this organisation was a private company, it was supposed to be put under liquidation so that we start afresh.”

Mr Maligwa said it was important to introduce the Geographic Information System (GIS) to be able to capture and monitor all council properties, water and sewer connections.

The introduction of GIS is expected to help improve service delivery and increase client satisfaction at a decreased delivery cost.