Online Reporter
Herald Reporter
Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe has distanced himself from the ongoing land dispute that resulted in the arrest of Harare deputy mayor, Rosemary Muronda, former Harare South MP Shadreck Mashayamombe, and subsequent questioning of Harare mayor Jacob Mafume by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.
The three were arrested after Marvis Java approached Zacc claiming that she had been sold a non-existent commercial stand in Newlands.
Councillor Mafume was released on the same day, while Muronda and Mashayamombe were each granted US$500 bail on Friday after Java withdrew the charges against them.
In an interview, Minister Garwe said Mayor Mafume and Muronda are central to the land dispute after they refused to transfer the Newlands land to Logara Properties, a company which wanted to construct modern town houses as well as a new road to ease traffic between Gunhill and the Borrowdale Road.
“The issue commenced long before I was even the Local Government Minister, that was in 2019,” Minister Garwe said.
“When I was appointed, I called the mayor and his team so that we resolve this issue but later on the Harare City Council officials turned the goal posts and started saying they have been sued by a consortium of companies that had bought the land in question.
“Our initial investigations revealed that there were three companies that were said to have bought the land, namely Clearn Burn Energy owned by Mashayamombe, Diexodos Marketing linked to Muronda and Aspire Elite Incorporated linked to (Clr) Mafume.”
“What this mean is that these officials had used their companies to sue Harare City Council and then no one represented the Council leading to a default judgement,” Minister Garwe said.
Minister Garwe also said Clr Mafume and his team at the Council wanted to lease the land in question to car sales owners instead of handing it over to Logara Properties to develop town houses.
“We told (Clr) Mafume and his team that Logara Properties had shown interest in developing the area and we suggested that city can be compensated by being allocated another piece of land along Borrowdale Road so that they can lease to car sales companies but they refused.”
The minister expressed shock that a private weekly, was implicating him in the saga.
