Brighton Chiseva
ZAKA – Fidelis Gwanya, a village head under Chief Bota, has been caught in a corruption scheme of ‘Sabhuku Vharazipi’ proportions after he allegedly smuggled four of his children’s names on the beneficiary list of a food aid programme sponsored by CARE International.
Surpisingly, Gwanya was recently in the press attacking the programme, claiming that it was promoting laziness among the people by providing food handouts.
Gwanya is said to have ordered his subordinates to make sure that they put his sons Leonard, Ignatious, and Fidelis jnr, daughter Clara and sister Epfania on the beneficiary list.
Under normal circumstances, Leonard, Ignatius and Fidelis would not qualify to be on the list because they are employed as a teacher, police officer and agritex officer respectively.
The programme is targeted at destitute and vulnerable people with no sources of income including orphans and the elderly.
Sources said CARE officials were suspicious at first but could not act since villagers had nominated their names as deserving beneficiaries following the order by their village head.
A tip off from one Severino Chivasa resulted in CARE officials calling a meeting to discuss the issue in the presence of the District Administrator (DA) and the ward 19 councillor, Peter Imbayarwo.
After the meeting, CARE officials removed all the names of Gwanya’s relatives and set out to do a door to door audit of beneficiaries in the village.
Imbayarwo confirmed being called by CARE officials to settle the matter.
TellZim News is informed that Chivasa is now being victimised for exposing Gwanya and a village meeting has already been to convened punish him with his mother reportedly being threatened with banishment from the village.
Imbayarwo was later tasked to settle an alleged simmering grudge between Gwanya and Chivasa which was one of the reasons why Chivasa exposed Gwanya.
When asked why he had corruptly sneaked the names of his relatives onto the beneficiaries’ name list, Gwanya reportedly denied any wrongdoing, saying it was his children who put themselves on the list.news
