TellZim Reporter

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) on Tuesday arrested Bikita Rural District Council (RDC) Chief Executive Officer over allegations of corruption emanating from the purchase of seven vehicles using council funds in 2022.
Reports coming from Bikita are that Peter Chibhi spent Tuesday night (February 28) in police cells after which he made an initial court appearance in before Bikita magistrate Takura Mugabe on March 1 (today).
Magistrate Mugabe is said to have granted Chibhi ZW$ 50 000 bail, asked the accused not to interfere with State witnesses and reporting to police once a week.
ZACC also reportedly took keys to the seven vehicles which include six Toyota Hilux GD6 bought for Head of Departments (HoDs) and the seventh a Prado Land Cruiser meant for the CEO and some reports are that the vehicles are supposed to be driven to ZACC offices in Masvingo (though yet to be verified).
Registration books to the vehicles were reportedly taken by ZACC late last year during the investigations into the allegations.
The said vehicles were bought after the RDC sought for a loan and went on to purchase the vehicles without the approval or knowledge of Minister of Local Government and Public Works July Moyo.
Contacted for comment resident lobby group Bikita Residents and Ratepayers Association (BIRRA) spokesperson Mark Mutengani said they welcome the move by ZACC and feel that will ensure sanity in the area.
“We really appreciate the action by ZACC to our council and arrest the CEO over misuse of public funds. We raised the issue last year when they bought GD6 vehicles in the name of managers. We hope justice and restitution will take course at the end of the day.
“We are expecting ZACC to dig further in search of more rot in our local authority. As residents, this is just but one of the many issues we raised the flag about,” said Mutengani.
TellZim News was one of the first media outlets to report on the corruption allegations after publishing a story titled ‘Bikita residents petition authorities over poor service delivery’ on April 30, 2022 before pursuing the story with another article titled ‘Government investigates Bikita RDC car scandal on May 9, 2022.
Other follow up articles were done including ‘Local government finally visits Bikita RDC’ on July 20, 2022, Bikita RDC vehicle purchase scandal-ZACC yet to act (July 23, 2022), Bikita RDC scandal needs parliamentary debate-MP Musakwa (June 11, 2022), Bikita RDC-residents on collision course (October 10, 2022) and lastly Bikita RDC squanders US$ 36 000 on four boreholes (June 4, 2022).

Emmanuel Chitsika

Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) in Masvingo has reiterated its commitment to nab cattle rustlers who are on the prowl, rustling and deboning cattle, further reducing the national herd which has been affected by January disease.
The call was made by Assistant Commissioner Fredrick Mbengwa (on behalf of Officer Commanding Masvingo Province Commissioner David Mahoya) when he addressed the media during an engagement organised by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) at Chevron hotel in Masvingo last week.
“We are really at pains looking at the devastation that has been inflicted on our national herd by diseases like January disease and Foot and Mouth and now this deboning thing. “In Masvingo province we have had reports of cattle theft in Gutu in places like Bhasera. We will arrest all those who do deboning without fear or favour. As part of ways of trying to curb the thefts, we have engaged local leadership like chiefs and village heads where we formed committees as a way of trying to find out who the perpetrators are and that is the gap we hope the committees would help close,” said Ass Com Mbengwa.
He appealed to the media to provide information if they come across any from their sources as it is helpful in the fight against crime.
“Like I have earlier said it has so far been difficult that during those wee hours of the day where not all people are allowed to move around serve for the police, there are some people who commit such crimes. We are appealing to the media because you have a lot of sources of information which can help you give us something tangible on the crime. We don’t necessarily need names of people, we just need to know where the deboning is likely or has been done and that will help lead us to the bottom of the matter.
“For us to destroy this menace, we need to destroy the market as well. It is really a cause for concern for ZRP. As leaders of the hierarchy, we sometimes run out of words in case we are asked by our superiors on issues to do with deboning.
“With deboning, it’s different from normal stock theft in the sense that it shows a well-organised criminal activity with ready markets which from reliable sources are sausage, mincemeat makers as well as meat pie processors.
“What happens is the criminals kill the beast, debone it and by early morning, the thieves would be in Harare, Bulawayo or even here in Masvingo because the destination is not yet known for now. We haven’t received any information on the destination but the above-mentioned categories of business people are likely the ones fuelling the thefts and the means of transporting are either buckets like has been the case with drug traffickers. They use the routes which we are yet to identify as law enforcement agents,” he added.
Cases of deboning (where thieves would kill beasts and strip away steak, leaving offals and bones) have been recorded in the province especially in Gutu and in Midlands province as well.

TellZim Reporter

Gweru -Council’s newly appointed Acting Town Clerk Livingstone Churu was involved in a horrific car crash with the local authority’s service vehicle but escaped with no injuries barely a day after assuming the post on February 21.
Council Public Relations Spokesperson Vimbai Chingwaramise confirmed the incident saying Churu was involved in the accident around Norton along Gweru-Harare road in Norton.
Churu was appointed as acting Town Clerk on Monday this week, taking over from Vakai Douglas Chikwekwe who was requested to recuse himself from duty following his recent arrest by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) on allegations of criminal abuse of office.
The US$176 000 Toyota SUV was bought for use by former Town Clerk Elizabeth Gwatipedza in 2019.

Brighton Chiseva

NYIKAVANHU–While people in some parts of Masvingo are praying for rains for their crops and livestock, teachers and nurses at Nyikavanhu Primary School and Clinic respectively are waiting to harvest it from their roofs for all domestic uses or risk forking out money every day to buy the precious liquid from local villagers.
Sources said the school and local clinic have no other alternative source of water and rely on Zimbabwe National Authority (ZINWA) controlled pipeline which is always down due to mechanical and technical challenges and the two institutions have gone for close to six months without regular clean water.
Two other alternatives are a river which is about 2 km away where they dig holes on the river bed (Mufuku) or a borehole which is about 3.5 km away with rusty and salty water.
Teachers and nurses at Nyikavanhu primary school and clinic are forced by the situation to buy water from local villagers who ferry the water using scotch carts.
Contacted for comment, school head Johnson Mawuruse could neither confirm nor deny the crisis but said he was not allowed to speak to the media.
“I am not allowed to speak to the media, you can contact the Provincial Education Director (PED), she is the one authorized to speak on our behalf,” said Mawuruse.
However, one teacher who spoke to TellZim News on condition of anonymity confirmed the development as she said they were buying a bucket at a cost of R6 – R10 or risk fetching from a river which is about 2 km away.
The teacher said they are only relieved when it’s raining where they get water from their roofs and store for some days.
“We have a situation here, we used to rely on ZINWA but their pump and pipes are always down. Now the two sources of water we have now is a river which is about 2 km away and a borehole which is about 2.5 km from the school.
“However, the borehole has salty water and is rusty so we have no option except to buy from the locals who fetch using scotch carts from other better sources. We just pray that it rains regularly so that we harvest from our roofs,” said the teacher.
The local councilor Johannes Bangweni also confirmed the crisis but was quick to say ZINWA was fixing the problem.
“Yes the school and clinic rely on water from Zinwa. However, there are faults along the line but I have seen a ZINWA vehicle and I am sure that they are going to fix the problem soon,” said Bangweni.
The teachers blamed local leadership saying they have raised the water crisis challenge with the councilor and MP but nothing is being done to address the problem.
“We have approached our local leaders with the idea of them facilitating the drilling of a borehole at the school but nothing has materialized so far. The MP promised to fix the problem several times but we are still suffering,” said another teacher.
Efforts to get a comment form the local MP Claudius Maronge were futile as his cell was unreachable by the time of writing.
The school had proposed a US$ 5 levy per learner to raise funds for a borehole but some parents refused and the idea was later abandoned.