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Report fingers Chiredzi Town chairman in another scam 

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Report fingers Chiredzi Town chairman in another scam 

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Garikai Mafirakureva

CHIREDZI –  Former Chiredzi Town chair, Francis Moyo is implicated in yet another scam in which 50 commonage stands meant to be taken by Government in 2015 disappeared and were sold for US$60 000.

This is contained in Chiredzi Town Council Investigation report released by the Minister of Local Government and Public Works, July Moyo two weeks ago.

The investigation into alleged rampant corruption at Chiredzi Town Council was carried out by a team from Local Government. 

The report found out that 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.

The report however, says that the application was approved dubiously because there should have been an allocation memorandum drafted by the State Land Management section for approval by the Permanent Secretary.

In this case, however, there was no such memorandum and the basis of the offer letter could not be established as the application letter had no project proposal and proof of funding.  

Mutsetse, who allegedly had no financial capacity then roped in Justin Chauke Housing Cooperative which was the brainchild of councillor Francis Moyo resulting in the area being referred to as ‘KwaFrango’.

“An agreement was entered into in which Inotrade would provide 50 stands to Moyo’s cooperative; Justin Chauke 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 has not received for the land intrinsic value.

Although Moyo relinquished his chairmanship of the cooperative he remained a signatory to its CBZ main account 012824001170014.

The investigating team recommended in 2016 that the Ministry withdraw its offer letter to Inotrade Investments (UL/100/2) and directly allocate the stands to the same beneficiaries who should pay the intrinsic land value to the Ministry.    

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