Gwanda councillor suspended in stands scam

A GWANDA councillor has been suspended from council following his appearance in court over a botched housing stand deal where he allegedly illegally sold two council stands to prospective home seekers.

Clr Thulani Moyo who was the council’s housing chairperson was two months ago dragged to court after he duped a prospective home seeker of $1 000 in a housing stand deal. Gwanda Town Mayor, Clr Knowledge Ndlovu confirmed the suspension of Clr Moyo as the housing chairperson following investigations done by council which recommended the council to take an action against Clr Moyo.

“I confirm that Clr Moyo has been suspended from his duties as a chairperson after an audit that was done which showed that he had allocated himself council stands with the intention of selling them.

“The stands are number 6550 and 6447 in the newly created suburb in Dolfontein. The suspension is with effect from last month pending recommendations from the ministry. The stands were recovered and the council didn’t lose any revenue except that its name was being used in some dirty deals. Everything was done outside council, even the affidavit papers were signed without the council knowledge,” said the Mayor.

Sources privy to the goings on told Sunday News that Clr Moyo allegedly allocated himself the two stands as part of his “benefits” for being the council’s housing chairperson.

He was, however, dragged to court after selling one of the two stands to two buyers in July and when he realised that the council was about to discover it he offered the remaining stand to the other buyer.

In his report, the source said, he noted that the buyer had given him money to keep for the purchasing of stands, but failed to produce the receipts to prove that the stands were sold legally.

Clr Moyo is said to have threatened the council saying that he was going to expose other undercover deals that other councillors were involved in.