A Zanu PF minister bought a house for 48 Zimbabwe cents

HARARE – In a shocking revelation of how Zanu PF leaders are abusing their positions, the resident minister for Mashonaland Central Martin Dinha bought a Bindura council house three years ago for a paltry 48 Zimbabwe cents.

The contentious purchase – described by one analyst as “one of the clearest and typical examples of the corruption and executive excesses of the past 31 years” – has prompted an outraged Elected Councillors Association of Zimbabwe (ECAZ) to institute a wide-ranging investigation into the disposal of state-owned properties over the past 11 years.

“The ECAZ Anti-corruption unit will be working flat out to unearth all corruption that has gone unchecked since 2000 and assures the people of Zimbabwe that they will get to the bottom of all thefts of council properties,” it said yesterday.

Dinha, one of President Robert Mugabe’s most zealous followers, is one of many senior Zanu PF officials who have benefitted from these kinds of controversial purchases.

What makes Dinha’s purchase of the 48c house, on a stand measuring 3025 square metres, even more gobsmacking is that it happened during the time of quintillions and quadrillions – at the height of Zimbabwe’s economic crisis, marked by ridiculously high inflation. At that time, 48 Zimbabwe cents could not even buy sweets or even a single tooth pick.

The purchase was sanctioned by the minister of local government, Ignatius Chombo, who himself has been under pressure from local authorities who are investigating him for his ownership of more than 100 stands and houses throughout the country – many of them acquired in different councils under controversial circumstances.

Dinha’s contested purchase of the house prompted an investigation by ousted Bindura mayor Tinashe Madamombe, who was fired by Chombo as soon as he started carrying out the probe and gathering evidence.

One of the reasons given for Madamombe’s firing was that he awarded council employees bonuses at a time that the Bindura municipality did not have the resources, a charge that Madamonde said was not just flimsy, but also without any basis.

Dinha openly admitted that he bought the house in question for 48 Zimbabwe cents when the Daily News contacted him at the weekend.

He said that the shocking purchase was part of his exit package which every executive mayor had benefited from. He added that he was not the only one who bought houses for “peanuts” at the time, but could not give the names of others involved.

“I bought that house for that price because it was a negotiated price and it is not Dinha alone who benefited from the scheme. Every council employee then who was staying in a council house was given an opportunity to buy a house,” Dinha said.

Chombo’s involvement in the sale of the house to Dinha for ZW$48 cents is contained in the deed of transfer, which the Daily News has in its possession.

The deed of transfer partly reads:“…Japhet Kabanga as the Town clerk of Bindura Municipality under the instruction from the minister of local government, public works and urban development, (Chombo) dated 27 February 2008 and the said appearer (Dinha) that the mentioned property has been duly sold to him at the half price with consent from the minister of urban development dated 27 February 2008 and that he in his capacity as attorney aforesaid hereby transfer to Martin Tafara Dinha.”

Dinha is also alleged to have bought other properties and stands in the same way, although this could not be established at the time of going to Press.

Dinha bought the council house in June 2008, just a few days before the swearing-in of new MDC councillors who were elected in March 2008. The same scenario prevailed in Harare where top Zanu PF officials grabbed prime land in 2008, just before the coming in of MDC councillors – suggesting a systematic and elaborate looting scheme, analysts say.

MDC councillors have always accused Zanu PF officials of going on a looting spree across the country in 2008, soon after it dawned on them that Mugabe’s party had lost in almost every local authority election throughout the country.

Madamombe insisted in an interview with the Daily News that he was fired by the minister after he instituted investigations over council properties involving Dinha.

“The problem started when I instituted an audit of council properties after we discovered that Dinha had taken many properties from the council, including the house which was sold to him at that low price, and vehicles which were said to be exit packages,” he said.

“It went on to the extent that he started working with some councillors to undermine my authority and these councillors became so corrupt such that on average, each one of them has at least five stands.

“To show that Chombo was working with them, he even sided with them at one of the meetings we held at his office, saying they could have as many stands as they wanted,” Madamombe said.

The six councillors involved have since been fired by the MDC in their bid to root out corruption in local authorities, but remain councillors at the behest of Chombo. The six councillors are said to have petitioned the minister to fire Madamombe.

He said Chombo’s actions were promoting corruption in councils.

“In 2008 they fired Mugogo who was refusing to give Dinha the house and now the labour court has awarded him US$1million as compensation and this is going to be funded by the residents who are battling to get good service delivery from the council,” he said.

Bindura residents have since declared that they will stop paying rates until Madamombe is reinstated as the mayor. They further say that the continued interference by Chombo and Dinha in the affairs of the local authority has affected service delivery.

Madamombe is not the only councillor to be fired for investigating theft of council properties in the 2008 period.

In Harare, councillors Warship Dumba and Casper Takura were fired by Chombo after leading an investigation which implicated Chombo and Phillip Chiyangwa in alleged illegal acquisitions of prime land in Harare. Chombo is in the process of returning one of the pieces of land