Online Reporter
THE duty of a councillor is to be at the beck and call of the community, addressing their every need, including pushing for better roads, clinics and schools.
Bulawayo Ward 26 Councillor Mpumelelo Moyo, however, thought differently.
For him, the office provided unending opportunities to become rich without breaking a sweat.
So, in October 2024, when a foreign investor, Labenmon Investments, was offered 5,6 hectares of land in the Umvumila Industrial area, Moyo, who chaired the Bulawayo City Council’s Finance Committee, decided to step in, claiming the investor needed to show “appreciation”.
By appreciation, he meant the investor had to part with an eye-watering US$20 000 “fee”.
To make it sound less like daylight robbery, he told the investor the money would be shared among 20 councillors.
Unfortunately for him, detectives from the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission were following the spoor.
They duly set up a sting operation to nail the rogue councillor.
As fate would have it, Moyo was caught with his hands in the cookie jar, as he was nabbed while clutching wads of marked cash at the complainant’s residence.
The courts were unimpressed.
At the Tredgold Magistrates’ Court in Bulawayo, Moyo was sentenced to 18 months in prison, though six months were suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour. So, for his ill-thought criminal scheme, he will be serving an effective 12 months behind bars.
