adminDaniel Kachere Harare Bureau
Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe chief executive officer Manuel Nyawo was arrested on Thursday on allegations of misappropriating the union’s funds and for obstructing the course of justice.A source within the union said Nyawo was arrested together with Michael Khosana who is the union’s Public Relations Officer on allegations of failing to comply with police instructions that required them to hand over financial statements of the union’s monetary transactions from 2009 to November 2013.
Chief Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said she was not aware of the arrest and could not shed more light on the information at hand.
According to the source, in 2009 a committee comprising Martin Maburutse, Moffat Katuli, Daniel Chiwandire, Fibion Mudamburi, Melvin Gwishiri, Sikhonjiwe Govere, Catherine Chiweshe and one known as Kudzai was formed to run the affairs of the housing co-operative and they all reported to Nyawo, the CEO.
Last month Maburutse (secretary), Katuli (committee member) and Chiwandire (committee member) appeared before Harare magistrate Douglas Chikwekwe and were remanded on $2,000 bail each.
Mudamburi and Gwishiri were the first to appear before the courts and are also on bail.
The committee appeared in court facing allegations of converting over $500,000 to their own use, money meant for water and sewer reticulation installation, which was deposited into an FBC bank account.
Govere, Chiweshe and one known as Kudzai are still on the run and are wanted by the police for questioning, said the source.
Nyawo was fingered over misappropriating the union’s funds sometime in January by former Mashonaland Central TUZ coordinator Bornface Poshai and the Ushewokunze Housing Project beneficiaries but he dismissed the allegations as sour grapes.
He said Poshai was a misguided element who wanted to tarnish the image of the TUZ and destroy it completely.
TUZ members were not allowed to question financial matters concerning the project according to a clause in their constitution which states that no members shall have a claim to share in the reserve fund except interims of Section 85 of the Co-operatives Societies Act.
The reserve fund and any general or special reserves shall be invisible, it reads.
Poshai said that he and other members of the co-operative approached Nyawo, to explain how their contributory funds were used but failed.
Nyawo responded to the members’ concerns by requesting for an audit which was carried out by a firm known as Empemafrica which turned out to be bogus, alleged Poshai.
Our Harare Bureau confirmed from the Public Accountants and Auditors Board (PAAB) that no such firm was registered by their board.
In a statement, Molline Nhenjana, an employee at the Auditor-General’s office confirmed that Empemafrica was not legally registered to carry out audits as per existing regulations.
A physical visit to the mentioned address on the audit report (89 Kwame Nkrumah Avenue) revealed that no such organisation was at the building, read the statement.
Nyawo alleged that the audit was done by senior auditors who are registered but the documents supporting this were not yet available.
TUZ president Lovemore Chifamba said he was not aware of such an audit when sought for clarification.
In 2003, TUZ Zimbabwe formed a housing co-operative called the Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe Ushewokunze Housing Co-operative comprising 518 members.
The co-operative was given land at Saturday Retreat Farm in Harare South by the Local Government Ministry for housing development and contributions were made through monthly subscriptions by the members.
Online Reporter