By Kundai Marunya

HARARE, once celebrated as a vibrant city of opportunity, is now grappling with corruption centred on land scams orchestrated by opposition politicians and senior city council officials. At the heart of this controversy are members of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who, according to a detailed dossier, have manipulated council processes to enrich themselves at the expense of the city’s residents.

Mayor Jacob Mafume, along with Councillors Denford Ngadziore, Stanley Manyenga, Adonia Shoko and Jason Kautsa, among others, have been accused of acquiring land at suspiciously low prices. Reports reveal that these individuals, along with others such as Happymore Gotora, Joseph Kunashe, and Keith Charumbira, have benefitted from land deals that defy council regulations and ethical governance.

A commercial stand in Budiriro was sold for a mere US$66 to Ward 5 Belvedere Councillor Midia Mudariki. In Cleveland Industrial Area, Ngadziore allegedly bought a 6 692 square metre stand for US$1 000, while Gotora and Kautsa received similarly undervalued plots. The pattern is clear: Land was allocated at giveaway prices, with some councillors acquiring multiple stands through dubious companies or manipulating council procedures. Procedures established under Local Government regulations were blatantly ignored. Land allocation, traditionally managed through the Human Resources and General Purposes Committee, was instead handled by the Finance and Development Committee, where councillors and senior management allegedly colluded to enrich themselves. To mask their involvement, beneficiaries are said to have recused themselves during meetings where their allocations were discussed.

The ‘rubber-stamping’ of these deals was facilitated by rotating chairpersons who ensured that every conspirator received his/her share of the spoils. The scandal also reveals a practice of grossly undervaluing council land by comparing it to prices set by real estate agents for built-up properties. This manipulation allowed beneficiaries to pay paltry sums for valuable stands, which they later resold at market rates of up to US$120 000, making a tidy profit in the process. The dossier exposes a systematic abuse of office by the implicated opposition politicians. Their actions go beyond personal greed; they undermine the principles of transparency and good governance they claim to champion in the opposition movement.

While they publicly position themselves as defenders of the downtrodden, their actions tell a different story. Masquerading as small-scale black entrepreneurs, they exploited loopholes to access prime land meant for community development. For example, in Aspindale, Councillor Costa Mande was allegedly allocayed a 7 327 square metre stand for just US$1 100, while in the new suburb of Glaudina, Councillors Maxwell Dutuma and Kashangura acquired 5 474 square metres for a mere US$550. This scandal highlights the systemic corruption crippling Harare’s municipal governance.

Residents of Harare, who already suffer from deteriorating service delivery, now have to contend with the knowledge that their elected officials prioritise personal gain over public good. “As residents, we spend over a decade on the waiting list and still are unable to get land yet our elected officials are getting that same land way under market value,” lamented Harare resident Chipo Mushoriwa. “This rot at City of Harare needs to be investigated and the perpetrators brought to book.”

The city’s perennial challenges — poor waste management, water shortages and crumbling infrastructure — are exacerbated by the diversion of resources meant to address them. The exposure of these land scams underscores an urgent need for reform, transparency and accountability. Transparency must be enforced in council operations, and those implicated must face justice. While opposition parties often claim victimisation by the Government, scandals like these erode their credibility and highlight the pervasive nature of corruption across Zimbabwe’s opposition political spectrum.

For Harare to reclaim its status as a city of opportunity, the City Fathers must put residents before personal enrichment. Without decisive action, scandals like these will continue to tarnish the city’s reputation and rob its citizens of sound service delivery. As the story unfolds, the question begs: Will the implicated opposition politicians be held to account, or will this be yet another scandal swept under the rug of Zimbabwe’s troubled political landscape? Recently, Nelson Chamisa, former leader of both the MDC Alliance (now defunct) and CCC appeared before a Commission of Inquiry, set up by Government to investigate the operations of Harare City Council since 2017.

The Commission, led by retired Justice Maphios Cheda, summoned Chamisa after CCC Councillor Blessing Duma implicated him, claiming that Chamisa had directed the city to regularise mushrooming settlements. Chamisa was grilled over his alleged role in illegally allocating over 5 000 stands and the regularisation of more than 300 housing cooperatives ahead of the 2023 harmonised general elections. This move was allegedly aimed at boosting his urban vote and countering President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s title deeds scheme. Chamisa, however, denied the allegations. “What bleeds my heart is the fact that each time councillors are elected on a party ticket, the moment they go into the council, they go bonkers, run amok, throw away all dictates of reason, throw away all dictates of allegiance and loyalty to the party . . .,” he was quoted as telling in The Herald. This was an admission that his former colleagues have been involved in illegal land dealings, and he was privy to that knowledge.

Chamisa claimed that the councillors would often remind him that he had no power to rein them in, as they were only answerable to the electorate. He also admitted before the Commission that he had lost control of his councillors, adding that his decision to establish an Integrity and Accountability Panel to regulate their activities was rejected. “We wanted to actually institute what we called an Integrity and Accountability Panel from the political party side to try and rein in councillors whom we felt were behaving in an untoward manner,” he said. “Unfortunately, as we did that, they said, look, in terms of the law, there is no way the party can take us to account on anything because we are not governed by a party. We are governed by the electorate. We are governed by the statutes. We are governed by the Urban Councils Act. And on that score, then it becomes very difficult to bring to account, especially our councillors.”