Harare mayor Herbert Gomba and his selected clique of Harare City Council employees and councillors have been sucked in a massive land scam involving an alleged unprocedural sale of land running into hundreds of thousands dollars, Zim Morning Post can reveal.
The clique is said to work in cahoots with unregistered estate agents who lure potential buyers and charge them money to be ‘smuggled’ onto the waiting list before being sold the land.
The alleged ‘cartel’ comprises of Hami Madzingira, Clifford Hlatshayo, and Glen Norah member of parliament Wellington Chikombo.
Hlatshayo is stationed at the City of Harare Fire Brigade department.
He is believed to be the lapdog who instructs MDC councillors around the country to approve land allocations for sale.
Investigations made by this publication established that the clique’s chief proxy is a woman named Mavis Madzivanzira who is the bait.
“Mavis is the one who shops for potential clients.
“She approached my cousin and offered him land worth $100 000 and he paid Mavis through her lawyers.
“Mavis went on to allocate him the land which they had not agreed on and the dispute rages on,” narrated our source.
The ‘loot’ is shared between Mavis and her principals Madzingira, Gomba and Hlatswayo.
Zim Morning Post is in possession of a copy of the agreement entered into by Mavis and the aggrieved buyer (name supplied).
Mavis’ s phone was not reachable at the time of writing.
The cartel is alleged to have illegally sold land to Ruth Makandiwa (for construction of a school)and N Richards wholesalers in Sunningdale.
To cover his tracks, Gomba stays in a rented house in Glen Norah B suburb yet he owns several houses in the capital.
He also owns stands at an illegal settlement known as Glen Norah D located opposite the popular ‘KwaFarai’ leisure centre.
The area is known for harbouring commercial sex workers.
Interestingly, this week Gomba said the new constitution emasculated the council in controlling illegal structures since they cannot demolish structures without a court order.
“Council can only be able to address issues of land invasions and land occupations in context with the new constitution which requires us to seek a court order before we go and demolish people’s properties that would have been constructed illegally, “ he told journalists this week.
Early this year, Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) opened an investigation against 23 MDC councillors and two National Assembly members implicated in a $60 million land scandal.
Other charges were related to the sale of stands in a self-enriching scam.
The councillors accused in the stands scam include Sithabile Mataka, Thabitha Ngwenya, Gladys Masuku, Macdonald Chunga, Tamani Moyo, Nephat Sibanda, Clayton Zana, Thobani Ncube, Collet Ndlovu, Siboniso Khumalo, Reuben Matengu, Mazama Dube, Gideon Mangena and former councilor Edward Manning.
Efforts to get a comment from Gomba hit a snag as he did not pick up his phone.
