Suicide over Harare housing saga

HARARE City Council is probing the case of suicide by a housing officer who left a note, implicating senior council officials in housing allocation scandals, it has emerged.

Mayor Herbert Gomba confirmed that a probe was underway to ascertain the authenticity of the note and the involvement of those implicated in corrupt activities.

The employee, identified as Maggie Muganga, was based at Remembrance House in Mbare, home to the housing department, allegedly committed suicide after investigators from the municipal police pounced on her in the course of a probe instituted by town house on housing allocation scandals.

According to the suicide note seen by NewsDay and said to have been left by the now deceased, senior officials at Remembrance House pocked thousands of dollars from home seekers in Westlea, Mabvuku and other suburbs and the money was shared among involved parties only identified in the note as DZ, TC among other officials.

Gomba confirmed the incident but said there was need for a thorough probe on the matter before “tarnishing images.”

“What I saw was a suicide letter purported to have been written by someone but that document has no signature, it only has figures and names of some people written on it,” Gomba said in confirming the incident.

“With that, we have tasked our team to continuously investigate the matter to identify the source of the document, its authenticity and whether the information there relates to genuine cases of corruption in the allocation of stands,” he said.

Gomba also confirmed on-going investigations on housing allocation that he said were initiated by town clerk Hosea Chisango “and not by the death of any person.”

Sources at town house yesterday said there was need for a thorough probe on housing allocations at the Remembrance House, adding there was a clique allegedly taking money from home seekers and sharing it among themselves.