INCREASE GUMBO
MIRROR REPORTER

CHIREDZI – The trial of former Chiredzi Town Council chairperson Francis Moyo has been postponed for a second time because the State is still carrying out investigations.
Magistrate Vimbai Mutukwa postponed the trial to May 3, 2024, last Friday. Moyo is being charged with abuse of duty as a public officer in terms of Section 174 of the Criminal Law (codification and reform) Act chapter 9: 23. He was arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) in February.
His arrest emanates from a Government investigation into goings-on at the local authority which resulted in a report titled Investigation Report on Chiredzi March – April 2016.
Although submitted in 2016, the report was only released by Minister of Local Government and Public Works, July Moyo, last year after pressure from Boniface Mutemachani (65) of Hippo Valley Estates and Clemence Saidi (67) of 1742 Javangwe in Ward 6 who engaged lawyers.
The allegations are that Moyo was implicated in a scam in which 50 commonage stands were sold for US$60 000. The said Chiredzi Town Council submitted 50 high density stands (stand numbers 7851-7900) to the Ministry of Local Government as Commonage. The commonage stands were then allocated by the Ministry to Trinity Mutsetse after an application by his company, Inotrade Investments (Pvt) Ltd, on February 5, 2014 for housing development in Tshovani Township.
It is alleged that the application was approved dubiously because there was no allocation memorandum from the State Land Management for approval by the Permanent Secretary. It is further alleged that Mutsetse, who allegedly had no financial capacity then roped in Justin Chauke Housing Cooperative which was the brainchild of councillor Moyo resulting in the area being referred to as ‘KwaFrango’.
The agreement was that Inotrade would provide 50 stands to Moyo’s cooperative and in return Inotrade would become first choice supplier of services and construction materials.
The stands were sold for US$1 200 disguised as registration fee and an additional US$95 being administration fee to people on Chiredzi Town Council waiting list despite that some were not members of the cooperative. The 50 stands were sold for US$60 000 and to date the Government suffered a prejudice of US$60 000 being the land intrinsic value. Moyo was a signatory to the housing cooperative’s CBZ main account 012824001170014.
Rutendo Ndibwo prosecuted.