Back to Index

Special Investigation Committee's report on City of Harare's land sales, leases and exchanges from the period October 2004 to December 2009
Special Investigation Committee, City of Harare
March 23, 2010

View this report on the Zimbabwe Metro website

Download this article
- Acrobat PDF version (220KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking here.

Presented by: Councillor W. Dumba
Chairperson of the Special Investigation Committee

Preamble

There is rampant corruption in all departments of Council. The Department of Urban Planning Services (DUPS) seems to be the worst affected by this scourge. There is evidence to suggest that all this was brought about by the so-called Strategic Turnaround Programme. This could have been a ploy by some unscrupulous strategists whose appetite for self -enrichment drove them to come out with a plan to loot council land. Systems that are void of accountability now form the basis of this turnaround project.

The District Officers' powers were deliberately stripped by this Turnaround project. This is so because, before the Turnaround, District Officers worked with their local Councillors as the custodians of land and other Council assets in the Districts/Wards they served. This is no longer the case, all land issues are controlled centrally under DUPS. District Officers were found to be stumbling blocks in the art of plundering Council assets.

The introduction of the Turnaround Programme saw the advent of almost all land alienation functions controlled by one department of Council. Presently, the town planning of council falls under the purview of the Department of Urban Planning Services. Land valuation is also under the same department. All applications for leased properties go to them and it is that same department that chooses which applicant wins amongst other applicants. Their role in management of Council's main asset, land, is rather too much and lacks accountability and is prone to abuse by officials, unscrupulous business people and cunning politicians.

Download full document

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP