Abuse of Office As Kombayi Debt Is Exposed
1 March 2017
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Fired Gweru Mayor Councillor Hamutendi Kombayi allegedly victimised council employees to the extent that they were afraid to pursue the recovery of about $400 000 the former mayor’s companies owed to the local authority in unpaid bills.

An independent tribunal that recommended the firing of Clr Kombayi made the allegations in a report.

“It is alleged that the Mayor (Kombayi) abused his office by victimising council employees not to pursue recovery of money owed to council by accused and his companies which amount to $425 023,” reads part of the independent tribunal’s report.

Meanwhile, the local authority was allegedly prejudiced of thousands of dollars in illegal plan approvals and permits for subdivisions by an officer from the section of Town Planning.
In his progress report on the cash strapped local authority, the Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and National Housing, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere, alleged that open spaces in Gweru were converted into residential stands by the Town Planning section with some stands encroaching into road ways.

He said the then Acting Director of Engineering Services was left by council and management to run the department unsupervised and pocketed money from illegal stands sales.

“One of the worst breakdowns of systems in the city of Gweru was in the area of development control and spatial planning. City officials had a culture of creating stands willy-nilly to the extent that most of the open spaces were converted into residential stands and some stands encroached into road ways.

Normal controls were non- existent. The town planning laws were violated as the acting director of Engineering Services was left to run the show unsupervised giving him the opportunity to pocket monies paid for plans and subdivisions he approved,” said the Minister.

Those who did not make the requisite illegal payments, he said, had their plans thrown away.

“Today internal control systems are now in place and the backlog on plan approvals has since been cleared. The chaos in the town planning section resulted in council being deprived of significant income from approval of plans and permits for subdivisions, money that should have been spent on council projects,” he said.

Minister Kasukuwere said an IT company would be engaged to capture all properties within the city boundaries and rate them so that all residents contribute to the council coffers for service delivery to improve further.

Last week, the minister fired the mayor and Clr Kenneth Sithole for gross misconduct, incompetence and mismanagement on the recommendation of an independent tribunal headed by Mr Isaac Muzenda.

The tribunal held hearings following the suspension of 15 Gweru councillors in August 2015.
The other 13 councillors have since returned to work. – State Media