ABOUT 87 properties belonging to Harare City Council are benefiting unnamed individuals and not the people due to corruption in the capital local authority, Harare mayor Jacob Mafume said on Wednesday.
This emerged at a special council meeting held on Wednesday at Town House.
It was also revealed that three beer outlets belonging to the council under Rufaro Marketing were sold out without the approval of council.
Mafume, has since ordered an investigation into the matter.
“We had over eighty-seven properties on which Rufaro Marketing used to employ a lot of people with a huge complement of staff. It used to bring revenue to council, what we called beer levy,” Mafume said.
“And all these properties,87 of them in all suburbs of the city, are benefiting, not the residents but individuals for one reason or the other,” he said.
Mafume also instituted a committee to do a follow up on the beer outlets around Harare and a report was presented by Councillor Ian Makone.
Makone said three beer outlets were sold and the council was not aware and did not receive any payment.
“The business case for Rufaro Marketing has shifted over the years in line with economic trends, but there has been no corresponding response as other forms, more relevant outlets, have taken over the selling of its traditional products,” Makone said.
“The property portfolio assigned to Rufaro Marketing should not be sold, except where in specific cases, such a sale is strategic.
“In his verbal submissions to the committee, the acting finance director revealed that outlets Chitubu, Nenyere and Island Bar had been sold based on an internal valuation. Authority for that sale was not confirmed,” he said.
People who are leasing the beer outlets are now renting to sub-tenants, paving a way for other activities to take place in the outlets without paying the council.
As a result, the Mayor has established an investigation committee to do a follow up on the situation of the outlets around Harare, which will help the council to bring the outlets back to their former glory. – Newzim