By Beatific Gumbwanda
CHIREDZI – Chiredzi Town Council Acting Town Secretary Consider Kubiku (47) has been dragged before the courts by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) on allegations of criminal abuse of office after he allegedly handpicked two employees for senior managerial posts they were not qualified for, without following proper recruitment procedures.
Kubiku appeared before Chiredzi Regional Magistrate Judith Zuyu on July 13, 2026, facing a charge of Criminal Abuse of Duty as a Public Officer, in violation of Section 174 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23].
He was granted US$500 bail.
Wellington Muzenda of Muzenda and Chitsama Attorneys represents him.
According to the state outline, the offence occurred sometime between December 2025 and April 2026, with Kubiku, as Acting Town Secretary and CTC’s accounting officer, alleged to have acted contrary to his duties under Section 136 of the Urban Councils Act [Chapter 29:15].
Court papers state that in March 2024, CTC engaged Third Eye Africa Consulting Group (Pvt) Ltd to carry out a job evaluation exercise.
The evaluators recommended that the posts held by the two employees, Irvene Muteyaunga and Munyaradzi Njiri, be abolished and that they be redeployed to departments matching their qualifications – Muteyaunga to the Housing Department’s Parks and Gardens section, given his degree in Agricultural Engineering, and Njiri to the Security Department.
Instead, the State alleges that in December 2025, Kubiku caused the creation and adoption of a new council organogram that established two new managerial posts: Assistant Director Operations in the Engineering Department and Senior Projects Coordinator in the Housing Department.
In January 2026, Kubiku is alleged to have authored and signed recommendation memos to the Human Resource Officer proposing that Muteyaunga and Njiri, whose original posts had by then been abolished, be promoted into the newly created positions.
The State alleges that council’s Human Resources policy requires promotions to be initiated by a written request from a Head of Department, and that no such request was made for either promotion.
It is further alleged that the two managerial posts were never advertised internally, and that no shortlisting, interviews, or competitive selection process took place, with Muteyaunga and Njiri instead handpicked by Kubiku, in violation of the council’s Human Resource Policy adopted under resolution 53/2c(xi)/24 at the 53rd Ordinary Full Council Meeting held on December 19, 2024.
Kubiku’s recommendation was subsequently tabled before the General Purposes Committee and Full Council, which passed a resolution to promote the two employees on the strength of his technical recommendation as Acting Town Secretary and the council’s chief technocrat.
He then signed and issued appointment letters upgrading Muteyaunga from Project Coordinator to Assistant Director Operations (Grade 13), and Njiri from Project Coordinator to Senior Projects Coordinator (Grade 12), authorising salary adjustments to the higher grades in the process.
Investigations subsequently found that neither employee met the minimum qualifications for their new posts.
The Assistant Director post in the Engineering Department requires a degree in Civil Engineering; Muteyaunga holds a degree in Agricultural Engineering.
The Senior Projects Coordinator post requires the skills to supervise engineering works; Njiri holds a Diploma in Security Management.
The State contends the salary adjustments that followed resulted in irregular expenditure of public funds, and that Kubiku’s conduct was prejudicial to the good administration of CTC.
The case, which has a possible 19 witnesses, has investigations expected to be completed by August 11, 2026, and Kubiku is set to appear on August 13 for trial.
Kubiku is not the first senior Chiredzi Town Council official to be arrested by ZACC over abuse of office.
In a previous case before the same magistrate, former council chairperson Francis Moyo was granted US$500 bail over allegations of criminal abuse of office relating to the irregular allocation of 50 commonage stands, which allegedly prejudiced the Ministry of Local Government of US$60,000.
Moyo’s case was later removed from remand after the state failed to build a case against him.In another case, Kubiku himself was arrested together with the late Town Engineer Wesley Kauma in June 2020 on four counts of criminal abuse of office dating back to 2015.
The two were accused of facilitating their acquisition of stands at a ridiculously low price of US$500 which they never paid, and constructing buildings without following proper council procedures.
They were released on bail and later acquitted of the charges.Kubiku has served as Acting Town Secretary at CTC after previously working as the council’s town planner, a role in which he was publicly associated with efforts to formalise CTC’s land holdings, including the long-delayed transfer of 925 hectares donated by the former Hippo Valley Estates.
