By Brighton Chiseva
Masvingo – Opposition councilors in Masvingo have been accused of joining Zanu PF’ gravy train through aiding the ruling party’s abuse of state resources after scores of them from Masvingo Rural District Council (RDC) and Chiredzi Town Council received allowances to attend a Zanu PF meeting held at Masvingo Polytechnic on March 3, 2024.
Sources said though the matter was discussed in a Masvingo WhatsApp group and they were told it was a Zanu PF function, councilors at Masvingo RDC decided to go and get allowances and that directly enabled council to fund party function.
“The matter was debated in a WhatsApp group, Mrs Marecha from HR department had sent the communication and councilor Tawanda Dube who is Zanu PF Masvingo District Coordinating Committee (DCC) chairperson added on saying the event was calling for Zanu PF councilors alone and even went on to tell them to be wearing regalia.
“One councilor even queried why council was funding party programmes. Councilor Anna Stambuli of ward 35 also queried the logic but surprisingly, she and other councilors showed up at the meeting which is a clear sign that they were up to allowances and nothing else.
“It is worrying that the councilors we voted for are aiding corruption and people out there should know that people they voted for were aiding Zanu PF to steal from the people,” the source.
Contacted for comment, Zanu PF provincial chairperson Robson Mavhenyengwa said the programme was purely a Zanu PF caucus meeting where the party wanted to whip its elected officials to work hard as had been called on by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
He however said it was allowed for employees to get allowances from council when they go for caucus meetings like that saying even MPs get allowances from parliament when they are called for party caucuses.
“The event was a Zanu PF programme where we called all our councilors, MPs, Senators among others where we were whipping them into line and call to action.
“It is allowed for them to get allowances from council when they come for such meetings and the same happens even at Parliament. If the opposition employees got allowances for the same programme maybe they did not know because they were not needed, we cannot whip them because they aren’t ours,” said Mavhenyengwa.
However, prominent lawyer and former Masvingo City Mayor Collen Maboke said Mavhenyengwa was wrong and said the Urban Councils Act was very clear on that, councilors only get allowances when they are on council business.
“The Urban Councils Act is very clear on that, its illegal for councils to give allowances to councilors when they go for their party business. They only get allowances when dealing with service delivery issues which is council business. What the councils did was wrong, that abusing ratepayers money,” said Maboke.
He also said if the opposition councilors were aware that it was a council business they were not supposed to accept the money for them to be able to hold council to account but it was difficult now that they are accomplices.
Maboke said both Zanu PF and opposition councilors were not supposed to get allowances for the meeting and what they did was purely stealing from the people.
Chiredzi CCC councilors are said to have came together with their Zanu PF counterparts and did not show up at the meeting but had to wait at Flamboyant Hotel until after the meeting waiting for the council vehicle to take them back whilst those from Masvingo RDC came to the meeting since the allowances were being paid at the venue and went back home after collecting their dues.
The allowances vary depending on the distance travelled and some get up to US$100.
One CCC councilor from Masvingo RDC confirmed the incident and said they were duped into believing that it was a state function only to realize it was not after arrival and saw their fellow Zanu PF councilors in full Zanu PF regalia.
“We received communication through the usual council channel that there was a meeting with the Minister of Local Government and as usual we were told that we would get our allowances upon arrival.
“When we arrived, we went straight to the finance team who gave us our allowances and when we enquired what the meeting was all about having seen Zanu PF councilors in full regalia, that’s when we were told that it was a pure Zanu PF event so we had to go back,” said the councilor.
A total of nine opposition councilors namely Chiedza Makoti ward 11, Milton Mugari ward 12, Tarusenga Mapamba ward 25, Scholarstica Njaravani ward 7 who were elected and proportional representative councilors namely, Chipala from Mashava, Deredzai, Chamisa , Gwenzi and Anna Stambuli of Ward 35 who got in as independent but caucuses with CCC councilors all got the allowances.
Two councilors Kefas Tapesana of ward 17 and Wisdom Tichazorwa are alleged to have boycotted the meeting hence did not receive the allowances citing that the event was a Zanu PF event.
In Chiredzi Town Council, three councilors from CCC came and collected their allowances at the council offices travelled to town and stayed off the meeting.
A source said Zanu PF councilors hatched a plan to make sure that their fellows from the opposition get the allowances so that they won’t complain that they were using council vehicle and allowances to attend party business.
“To avoid noise in Chiredzi, CCC councilors were told that the programme was a pure Zanu PF event after they had already collected their allowances and were told they were free to go back home,” said the source.
Contacted for comment, one CCC Chiredzi Councillor Phelimon Muchafa said they also tricked and only realized it was a part function when it was too late and they had to get off in Masvingo town and waited for the meeting to end so that they could go back with their Zanu PF counterparts who had the council vehicle.
“We did not know it was a party function, we only realized that when we got in town seeing our fellows from Zanu PF taking off jackets revealing their partry regalia. When we queried we were told that we should ask the Town Secretary or Council Chair which we did.
“They both said they received communication which said the programme was a government programme. We then asked them to share the communication with us but they failed and we concluded that they had tricked us,” said Muchafa
Contrary to Mavhenyengwa, Chiredzi Council Chair Jameson Charumbira said the event was purely a government programme was a government programme hence they got allowances from Council to attend the meeting that is why every Councillor including those from opposition got the allowances.
“Council was served with government papers to invite us to the meeting so it was a government programme, we cannot get allowances from council for a party programme,” said Charumbira.
On the reason why CCC councilors failed to show up at the event Charumbira said he was not sure since they travelled separately with another council vehicle whilst he was in another and said he did not know what happened thereafter.
“As the chair I traveled in another vehicle and the rest of the councilors used another vehicle, so I am not sure what happened in their vehicle and if they did not attend I am not sure where they got off and the reason why they did not show up,” said Charumbira.
