Teachers’ union loses $80 000 to land baron

A HARARE City Council senior employee is embroiled in a land scam involving more than $100 000 after he allegedly sold land that council allocated to a cooperative in Budiriro to a suspected land baron.

The land in question had been allocated to Budiriro Extension Pay Scheme whose members had paid $1 500 each to council in intrinsic land value.

A report made by the cooperative to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), who are investigating the matter, and copied to Harare Mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni shows that acting research manager Mr Believer Mupawaenda was allegedly paid $20 000 by Mr Andrew Nkani, who is now selling the land to unsuspecting home-seekers for prices ranging from $6 000 to $10 000.

The Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) was allegedly swindled of $80 000 after paying for 100 stands to Mr Nkani.

PTUZ has since written to council complaining over the status of Harare Housing Cooperative stands in Budiriro after they found out that there was no documentation at council to show that Mr Nkani was the owner of the land.

In response to the letter, Harare City Council denied selling any land to the organisation and disassociated itself from the transactions made by PTUZ to Mr Nkani and urged the association to report the matter to the Registrar of Cooperatives.

“PTUZ never made any payments to council and therefore lodging a complaint in relation to stands they never purchased from City of Harare but from a private individual.”

“PTUZ Harare Housing Cooperative entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with a Mr Nkani not with council towards acquisition of one hundred stands,” said council.

According to the report, when members to the pay scheme got information that Mr Nkani was parcelling out the land they approached him and he claimed ownership of the land.

“We showed him our official offer letters and then he boastfully told the gathering that he gave a council official, one Mr Mupawaenda, a hefty $20 000 for the land.

“On April 2, this year we went to the ground and found out that there were three illegal structures and we resolved to erect temporary structures to safeguard our land,” reads the report.

“Events took a nasty turn when Mr Nkani took the law into his own hands by burning down our wooden structures.”

Mr Nkani, who is being investigated by the ZRP Law and Order Section, is alleged to have parcelled out more land and more than 50 illegal structures have been built on the land.

Meanwhile, a Harare man has appeared in court for allegedly swindling a Budiriro housing co-operative of over $42 000, writes Sheilla Mapani.

Owen Kariyo (32), who was the treasurer of Devine Mercy Housing Co-operative, withdrew money deposited into his bank account by the co-operative members and converted it to his own use.

He appeared before Harare magistrate Mrs Josephine Sande last Saturday facing charges of theft of trust property and was remanded to August 11 on $200 bail.

Prosecutor Ms Linda Gadzikwa alleged that sometime in April 2013, Steven Lishandi, Kariyo and 17 others formed Devine Mercy Housing Co-operative which was duly registered with the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises.

It is alleged that they elected Daniel Gwekwerere as the chairman and Artwell Madondo as secretary. Gwekwerere and Madondo are still at large.

The court heard that each member paid $10 as joining fee and contributed a monthly instalment of $105 which was paid directly to Kariyo or through bank transfers to his Ecobank account.

The money was meant for the acquisition of land from the Harare City Council and servicing land for habitation.

It is the State’s case that the members stopped contributions in February 2015 after having suspected that the executive was misappropriating funds.

It is further alleged that the members discovered the offence when they obtained bank statements and realised that Kariyo was withdrawing funds as soon as deposits were made yet there was no progress as they had not been allocated any land.

This prompted them to report the matter to police on May 1 this year.

Investigations by the police revealed that the Ecobank account had a balance of $117, 46 despite large amounts of money contributed by the members.