Chitungwiza Municipality employee arrested for alleged abuse of office

Harare (New Ziana) –The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) on Tuesday announced the arrest of a senior Chitungwiza Municipality employee on allegations of criminal abuse of office as a public officer.

Henry Kandawasvika (49) from Madokero suburb has been working for the municipality as a land survey technician since 2011.

He is accused of unprocedurally creating 30 commercial stands on land which was reserved for an open space on the municipality layout plan in 2019.

In a statement, ZACC spokesperson Phyllis Chikundura said Kandawasvika worked with Rosemary Maridza who was the then Chitungwiza town planner.

“Sometime in 2019, Rosemary Maridza the then Town Planner at Chitungwiza Municipality (who is still at large) unprocedurally created a site plan for (thirty) 30 commercial stands numbered from 60189 to 60218 in Unit G, Makoni Business Centre, Chitungwiza,” she said.

Chikundura said the land was reserved for an open space on the Chitungwiza Municipality layout plan and is State land requiring Ministerial authority for a change of reservation as provided for in the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act.

“She further did not adhere to Section 43 of the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act which provides that, subdivision of State land or Communal Land for Public, industrial, commercial, residential or similar purposes shall be referred to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, who shall not approve the proposed layout plan until in the case of State land, the local authority concerned has been consulted and come up with a resolution to that effect.”

Thereafter, Chikundura said, Kandawasvika and Maridza made false representations on verification forms that the stands existed on the Chitungwiza layout plan and that they were planned for commercial use, yet the area was reserved as an open space.

By so doing, Kandawasvika failed to adhere to the Municipality land policy which stipulates that in giving an allocation memorandum to the housing department, they must give a true representation that the procedures were followed religiously, she explained.

Chikundura said the unprocedurally created stands were later on submitted to Hazel Sithole, the Chitungwiza director of housing who is already on remand.

“Subsequently the unprocedurally created stands were submitted to Hazel Sithole, who proceeded to allocate the stands to handpicked individuals disregarding the prescriptions of the Municipality’s housing policy and her job description, which enjoins the Housing Director to inter alia adhere to the following procedures when allocating commercial stands; competitive bidding process with minimum offers determined by Council, submission of adjudication outcome to Finance Committee for information and awarding following existing procurement procedures.” she said.

Kandawasvika will be taken to the Harare Magistrates Court for initial remand on Wednesday.

New Ziana