Housing director sucked in stands scam

Mercy Ngwebvu
MUTARE City Council housing director, Stenard Mapurisa, is at the centre of a fraud storm after he allegedly teamed up with two colleagues to sell a residential stand in Greenside Extension to two different people.

It is alleged that Mapurisa, Catherine Mbanje and Rophina Nyamangodo sold Stand Number 11859 Greenside Extension, Marymount to Joseph Nyoni and in so doing, acted contrary to their duties because the stand in question belonged to Stenard’s son, Walter Mapurisa.

The trio appeared before Mutare magistrate, Mr Poterai Gwezhira last Saturday facing criminal abuse of their duty as public officers charges as defined in Section 174 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, to which they pleaded not guilty.

They were remanded out of custody to August 24 on $150 bail each.

State Prosecutor, Mr Brian Goto told the court that on June 17, at the Community Services and Housing Department Moffat Offices in Sakubva, the accused persons, acting in connivance sold the undeveloped stand to Nyoni for $12 000 before they gave him a provisional offer letter.

“What they did was unlawful because Walter also had a provisional offer letter for the same stand, which had been issued to him on November 10, 2014. Upon selling the stand to Nyoni, an Account Number 10118590 was created in Walter’s name. More so they only issued a receipt of $5 000 to Nyoni with the outstanding balance unaccounted for,” said Goto.

It is alleged that towards the end of July, Mapurisa issued a statement of rates to Nyoni which was valued at $4 180-50, purporting it to be official.

The statement demanded payment of the money back dated to June 1, 2015 whereas he had not even purchased the stand then.

When Nyoni sought clarity about the statement, it is alleged that Mapurisa and his team opted to refund him the $12 000.

However, they allegedly sourced Nyoni’s refund by selling the same stand to Rudo Mandimutsira for $15 000, without issuing her any receipts.

Said Mr Goto: “By manipulating Walter’s account, the accused persons acted unlawfully because Walter had not entered into an agreement of sale with either Nyoni or Mandimutsira.”