Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development Obert Mpofu has been swindled of $40,000.00, ZimEye can reveal.
ZimEye.com can reveal Mpofu is up in arms with a Gwanda councillor after being defrauded of at least $40 000 from rentals received from the Minister’s chain of properties in Gwanda.
According to impeccable sources close to the two once very close ZANU PF politicians, a Gwanda ward 9 councillor is said to have fraudulently received over $40 000 rent from the Minister’s many commercial properties in the town’s CBD which he did not remit to the Minister. The sources claim the Councillor(Name Supplied), was engaged by the Minister to be his right hand man in Gwanda to takes charge of his business interests soon after the 2013 general elections.
Mpofu’s business ventures in Gwanda include earth moving equipment, and business properties acquired in the CBD.
The accused is said to have been tasked with supervision of the renovation of the properties, getting clients to rent the shops and administering the earth moving equipment hires.
The sources claim that the councillor, who is also an ex convict for fraud, first clashed with the Minister last year when the councillor failed to remit funds collected from the hire of the earth moving equipment. In the written leak to ZimEye.com, the sources claim that instead of the Councillor hiring out the equipment commercially, he instead used the equipment to perform works in his ward most of which were not approved by Council.
It is claimed that when Minister Mpofu demanded the money generated from his equipment the Councillor raised an invoice to Council for the work done. It is however not clear from the sources if Council eventually settled the invoice in question but Minister Mpofu is said to have immediately withdrawn all his equipment from the town after they had appeared in media performing work on council roads without Council approval.
In the latest clash between the Minister and the councillor, sources claim the man was given an undisclosed amount of money by the Minister to renovate the old buildings he had acquired in the town and find clientelle for the shops. The councillor is said to have effected the first phase of the renovations using the funds availed by the Minister. In the second phase of the renovations the accused is said to have ordered prospective clients to complete the renovations of the shops they intended to occupy using their own money which was to be paid back by deductions from the rental until cleared. The sources are convinced that the man had been given the money for the renovations by the Minister in full.
Following the quick completion of the renovations by the desperate clients, the sources claim thatthe accused would further advise the busy Minister that the shops were still incomplete while the clients were already occupying the shops and paying rent to the councillor who would convert it for personal use.
The sources allege that the Councillor’s clandestine dealings came to fore when the Minister made a surprise visit to the town to inspect progress on the renovations of the shops only to find almost all the shops occupied with some of the occupants claiming to have been in the shops for almost six months and paying rentals direct to the Councillor. The Minister is said to have been extremely agitated by the Councillor’s untrustworthiness that he has sent in an audit team to follow up the Councillor’s dealings with an intention of laying criminal charges against his once trusted colleague in the party. The very reliable sources claim that to date the audit team has managed to trace at least $40 000 to have been fraudulently obtained by the Councillor from the Minister’s rentals with the figure increasing as investigations continue.
In a snap survey amongst the residents of the town,the accused was generally described as most likely the richest Councillor. The leak by the sources also portrays the Councillor as having quickly moved from low life to high class in a very short time since his election to Council and the resultant relationship with the Minister. The leak claims that the man is said to have at one time hired transport to ferry scores of elderly people from Gwanda to spend time in Bulawayo and be treated to a Bulawayo fast food deli before the fast food operation opened a branch in Gwanda.
Comment could not immediately be obtained from ministry Mpofu whose mobile phone was not reachable. Meanwhile, a senior ZANU PF official in Gwanda who is also close to the two confirmed that Minister Mpofu andthe accused were in a disagreement over rentals due to the Minister from his shops in Gwanda allegedly paid tothe accused. The official claims that some ZANU PF senior officers in the town are making frantic efforts to have the two settle the matter out of court “for the good of the party.”