George Maponga in Masvingo
Six senior Bikita Rural District Council officials have been arrested for corruption over allegations of illegally taking a council loan amounting to nearly $US200 000 to purchase personal vehicles without Government approval as mandated by the law.
The six, Anold Matuke, Bonface Norumedzo, Nomater Gezera, Morgan Madhura, Never Mavhuna and Philemon Madera are expected to appear in court soon after they were arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission(ZACC).
They join Bikita RDC chief executive Peter Chinhu who was the first to be nabbed over the alleged malfeasance and appeared in court last month where he was granted $50 000 bail.
ZACC spokesperson Ms Thandiwe Mlobane confirmed the arrest of the six Bikita RDC officials for corruption involving US$191 000.
“The accused persons took a council loan worth US$ 191 100 to purchase 6 Toyota GD6 single cab vehicles without approval from the Minister (of Local Government and Public Works). They registered the vehicles in their own names,” said Ms Mlobane.
“In accordance with council resolution, the accused were supposed to have taken personal loans to purchase the vehicles in question with the council acting as the guarantor.”
The ZACC added, “To sanitize their actions they later signed MOUs for the motor vehicle loans worth ZWL$ 43 209 290 payable for 3 years and this is insignificant compared to the prices of the vehicles already registered in their names.”
Government has been on a warpath against corrupt public officials and several of them have been nabbed in the anti-corruption dragnet.