MDC-T councillors implicated in smear campaign

MDC-T councillors have been accused of being the brains behind a smear campaign against newly appointed Harare City Council director of housing and social development Mr Edmore Nhekairo after they manufactured documents alleging that he defrauded Marondera Municipality of cash, residential and commercial stands amounting to thousands of dollars.

Investigations carried out so far have revealed that the councillors did not want Mr Nhekairo, who is on probation, to be appointed as the substantive director of housing and social development for the city.

The councillors (names supplied) are part of the human resources committee, while MDC-T Harare youth secretary Danford Ngadziwore has also been implicated.

Mr Ngadziwore reportedly operates a pressure group called Residents Forum, which recently wrote a letter to all relevant authorities arguing that Mr Nhekairo should not be appointed.

It is believed that MDC-T councillors want to impose a candidate for the post so that their illicit deals involving residential stands would not be discovered.

They are of the view that Mr Nhekairo has strong links in Government and Zanu-PF and that he would be a threat.

According to the investigations, this led the councillors to manufacture a document with several allegations against Mr Nhekairo, purporting to be from ruling party officials from Marondera.

Last week, Marondera Town Council officials denied that Mr Nhekairo, their former housing director, was under investigation for allocating himself several residential and commercial stands.

Officials from the town council said some of the properties that were mentioned to have been owned by Mr Nhekairo did not exist.

This came after reports that the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission was investigating Mr Nhekairo over the allegations.

“According to our database, Mr Nhekairo owns stand number 9576 Mugodo Street at Rusike Phase 1 Shopping Centre, where there is a bar, butchery and a supermarket which was bought through a tender process from Marondera Municipality,” reads a statement from the council.

“At Gombo Shopping Centre, Mr Nhekairo owns stand number 2786, where there is Hustlers Bar and stand number 2787, where there is a warehouse that he is reported to have bought from an individual.

“The rest of the properties that were mentioned in the media do not exist in Marondera Municipality database.”