Police refuse to investigate Chiyangwa & Chombo land deals
By Lance Guma
19 April 2010
Police are still refusing to investigate allegations of corruption levelled against local government Minister Ignatius Chombo and businessman Philip Chiyangwa, in a major scandal that saw them illegally acquire council land. A report compiled by a committee of Harare City councillors exposed how the two, with help from two council employees, illegally grabbed vast tracts of prime land from the city on the cheap, without following proper procedures.
Despite Harare’s acting Mayor Charity Bango reporting the matter to police last week Monday, police are still to record a statement 7 days later. Bango said the police are dragging their feet and keep referring her from one
officer to another. The delay is in stark contrast to the swift mass arrest of councillors who compiled the report after Chiyangwa lodged a complaint of ‘criminal defamation’ after several newspapers had picked up on the scandal. Journalists Stanley Gama, Jennifer Dube, Feluna Nleya and Vincent Kahiya were also detained on Chiyangwa’s orders.
Newsreel spoke to Warship Dumba the councillor who chaired the investigation. He told us ‘these allegations are not coming from our heads. They have to do with things contained in council files. The issues which are criminal have been referred to the police while others will be dealt with in-house.’ He confirmed that all the councillors arrested last week will be reporting to the police station or court on Tuesday to answer the charges from Chiyangwa.
The mayor and councillors have refused to be intimidated and are pressing ahead with plans to put Chombo and Chiyangwa in the dock. Last week Thursday Bango wrote a letter of complaint to the officer in charge of the criminal investigations department, asking him to intervene. Developments so far suggest police have been given instructions from the top hierarchy in ZANU PF not to do anything. Chiyangwa is Mugabe’s nephew while Chombo is a key minister from Mugabe’s home area of Zvimba.
Meanwhile in a sign of their determination, the Harare City council is reported to be pushing ahead with plans to repossess land in the plush Borrowdale area, irregularly acquired by Chombo and Chiyangwa. They also want senior council employees Psychology Chiwanga, the director of urban planning services, and Cosmas Zvikaramba, the finance director, arrested for conniving with Chiyangwa and Chombo in the illegal land deals.
When BBC reporter Sue Lloyd-Roberts recently produced a piece on the economic progress made by Zimbabwe’s coalition government, ZANU PF was eager for her to speak to Chiyangwa, holding him up as a success story of black empowerment. The latest revelations show how the system works. A syndicate of connected crooks line their pockets, by plundering state or council resources with absolute impunity, and the police and everyone else is powerless to do anything about it.