HARARE – Former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa was Monday summoned before the Justice (rtd) Maphios Cheda led Harare City Commission of Inquiry where he denied issuing orders to the councillors in the opposition led local authority to regularise illegal settlements in the city.
Chamisa was summoned after he was name-dropped in an audio message by Councillor Blessing Duma who allegedly suggested some of the decisions regarding land in the city were executed on Chamisa’s directives.
The opposition politician distanced himself from any acts of corruption by councillors adding that his nemesis, President Emerson Mnangagwa should also be quizzed over the deals after Duma also mentioned the Zimbabwe incumbent as having condemned the corruption.
“It is not true in the sense that first of all when I listen there are two names that have been dropped in terms of their leadership roles, President Mnangagwa and President Chamisa and I hope that the Commission is also going to tell him to come,” Chamisa said.
The opposition politician also denied he interfered with council decisions.
He described Harare’s land scandal as acts of “tomfoolery and shenanigans” by councillors he claimed became disloyal to his leadership once they secured posts within the council on a party ticket.
“…But what I am aware of is that there is a lot of Tomfoolery and shenanigans within the context of local authorities,” Chamisa said, adding, “What bleeds my heart is the fact that each time councillors are elected on a party ticket, the moment they go into the council, they go bonkers, run amok, throw away all dictates of reason, throw away all dictates of allegiance and loyalty to the party .”
Reacting to the summoning of his leader, one-time CCC spokesperson Ostallos Siziba railed against the Commission for alleged attempts to stampede Chamisa into the Harare land scandal.
He described the action as “the regime’s desperation to implicate President Chamisa on baseless, unfounded, frivolous and vexatious allegations”.
Siziba said the government should stop “prioritising theatrics” and start focussing its energies on “real issues such as solving the energy crisis, reindustrialising Zimbabwe and providing our people with basic services such as decent housing, clean water, streetlights and a robust public transport system”.
“This farcical inquiry is another example of misplaced priorities and we condemn it with the utmost contempt it deserves,” he said.
The Commission of Inquiry was installed by Mnangagwa to probe Harare City Council’s operations since 2017.
Harare is often described as a monumental crime scene after politically connected land barons have annexed tracts of land which they have sold away to unsuspecting home seekers while working in cahoots with corrupt councillors.
This has often ended in grief for buyers of land who find their homes destroyed on the orders of city authorities who accuse them of settling on illegal land.
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