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What sits underneath Ignatious Morgen Chiminya Chombo's warpath with MDC councils
Movement for Democratic Change
January 06, 2011

Zimbabweans need to understand the source of the war Ignatious Morgen Chiminya Chombo, a Zanu PF politburo member, has declared on the MDC in general and with the Harare City Council, in particular. For close to a decade, Chombo was effectively the de-facto Mayor of Harare and used the city as a looting platform for the obscene wealth Zanu PF and himself, personally, fraudulently pillaged from the people. When Zanu PF first lost control of Harare to the MDC in 2002, Chombo went out of his way and dismissed Executive Mayor, Eng Elias Mudzuri and the entire the council because their presence interfered with Zanu PF's grand plan to fleece the capital city of its finite resources.

The result was that Harare, against the law, had no functional local authority up until July 2008 despite the fact that the current councillors had been democratically elected 63 days earlier. After Zanu PF lost again in March 2008, Chombo quickly appointed a care-taker council to run Harare for 63 days in contravention of the law and in a desperate attempt to sanitise his personal loot and booty; and that of his departing Zanu PF flotilla.

Serious cases of malpractices and crimes were committed during that short period, much of which were designed to benefit Chombo in his individual capacity. As with all cases of baseness, Chombo could run but not hide. In December 2009, the MDC council set up a special land investigations committee to examine what happened in the city during the previous decade of Chombo's inspired hooliganism. The committee unearthed a sordid tale and exposed the horror of corruption and asset-stripping Harare experienced in a decade.

When the results were published, a panicky Chombo through one of his Zanu PF cohorts, Phillip Chiyangwa, could see that the net was closing in. Chiyangwa immediately filed criminal defamation charges against the Mayor, Muchadeyi Masunda, and members of the special investigations committee and caused their arrest by the police. Curiously, the matter was being handled by the Law and Order Section of the Zimbabwe Republic Police.

The council then reported Chombo and Chiyangwa to the police. Nothing happened and the two were never prosecuted. Seeing that chances for a conviction of the mayor and councillors were slim, Chiyangwa dropped the charge, but not before he tried to influence the process further.He specifically requested the Mayor Masunda to ignore the land probe.The request was flatly turned down. While this was taking place, Chombo never stopped trying to clean-up his heavily soiled past.

He set up his own teams, two of them, to investigate what he termed cases of corruption in the city council. These teams recommended the suspension of three councillors on flimsy grounds. When the council maintained its position and declared an intention to continue with the land investigations, Chombo was totally narked and hurt. He suspended two additional councillors, committee chairman Warship Dumba, and committee member, Casper Takura. Still unsatisfied, Chombo's plan is instil fear in the council and smash the confidence of all its democratically elected representatives.

He plans to have a go and others he considers a threat to his political lifeline. The pattern is the same in other towns and cities. Bindura, Kariba, Victoria Falls, Bulawayo, Mutare and Chitungwiza have all felt Chombo's meddling - all designed to protect his vast interests and a personal fortune. For a man who rose from meek rural beginnings, landing on a job as a junior university lecturer, Chombo's rapid acquisition of wealth and prime land has never been seen in Zimbabwe's history. His former peers at the University of Zimbabwe, in their honesty, could count themselves lucky to own a single bungalow in a high density suburb from their legitimate earnings.

The MDC has, for more than a decade, called for investigation into Chombo's affairs. But because of his closeness to Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF leadership, Chombo continues to cause havoc to a nation struggling to get to its feet. For the avoidance of doubt over the MDC's concern and sincerity; and apart from what is already in the public domain about Chombo's activities as a public officer and a politician, Zimbabweans must consider the following additional story.

There is abundant documentary evidence to support this latest discovery.

• In Harare's plush northern suburb of Glen Lorne lies a piece of land technically known as Subdivision "K" of Nthaba which used to belong to the city council. Chombo alleges that he was allocated the same piece of land in 1995 by the then Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development. But there was no ministry with such a name at the time although the date stamp on Chombo's lease agreement says so. The ministry which existed was that of Local Government and Housing.
• This piece of land was donated to the city by a well wisher, Walter Serocold Pell Edmonds, in 1954 and transferred on the 8th of October 1973 to the City of Harare on condition that it can only be used as a public space. Title Deed No. 3662/1954 was specifically endorsed to effect the council ownership. For years, the piece of land remained that state.
• When Chombo went into full time politics, he claims to have signed a lease agreement with this non-existent government ministry on 2nd January 1997 and agreed to pay Z$6 301 as rentals per year. A further conflicting point here is that Chombo alleges to have bought the same piece of land on the 1st of January 1997. How this was possible on New Year's Day beggars belief?
• Chombo tried to sell the land to a Mr Alois Ndaziva Chimeri (63-556768T26) who was then residing at 69 Steven Drive , Msasa, Harare, for Z$250 million on 15th September 2003. But this could not happen as Chombo was not the registered owner of the property.
• Records show that over the years, Chombo tried to transfer the land into his name but failed. Correspondence, dating back to 25 June 2004, between the ministry (through the then permanent secretary Mrs R.Pazvakawambwa), Harare City Council and lawyers Honey and Blackenberg show clearly the difficulties Chombo encountered in wrestling the property from the city council. Among the lawyers concerns were issues of conflict of interest as Chombo, now as the minister, was literally intending to change the land use for a personal advantage. Further, the lawyers wanted a Capital Gains Clearance Certificate, Title Deeds and an Agreement of Sale - documents Chombo did not appear to have.
• Additional documentation about this piece of land was generated when Chombo was now the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development.
• A perusal of these documents shows that they appear suspect, tampered with or completely manufactured.
• Mrs R. Pazvakawambwa, in a letter to the City Valuer and Estates Manager, a Mr Francisco, dated 25 June 2004 requested that the piece of land be transferred to Chombo on the basis that the stand had been allocated to him in 1995. The Town Clerk responded to Mrs R. Pazvakawambwa's letter on 21 September 2004 advising her that Chombo's application had been forwarded to the Director of Works, P.C. Chiwanga for onward transmission to the ministry for a 'change of use' in terms of Section 49 of the Regional Town and Country Planning Act (1996).
• On 19 November 2004, Chiwanga informed the City Valuer in writing that he had no objection to the land being transferred to Chombo. Because of a stream that runs through the property, additional legal work was needed with regards the water rights at the piece of land. Chiwanga advised that this was now unnecessary because the new Water Act nullified all water rights which had been an obstacle in the transfer of the land to Chombo.
• On the 7th of January 2005, the Town Clerk then wrote to Honey and Blackenberg to proceed with the transfer, further informing the law firm that all water rights have been nullified by Zinwa.
• On the 11th of April 2005, the lawyers requested the necessary documents and details for an effective transfer, among them, the original Agreement of Sale to Minister Chombo. Nothing happened for a whole month until Mrs R. Pazvakawambwa wrote another letter to the City Valuer enquiring about the position regarding the transfer. On the 7th of June 2005, the Town Clerk responded to Mrs R.Pazvakawambwa's letter requesting for Chombo's details as they were needed by the lawyers. Ten days later, the lawyers reminded the City Valuer that they were still waiting for Chombo's details as per their 11 April 2005 letter.
• On the 21st of July 2005, the Town Clerk advised Mrs R. Pazvakawambwa that the state can go ahead and transfer the property to Chombo. He advised Honey and Blackenberg to close their file on the matter as it was now being dealt with directly by the state. Somehow, something did not seem right as shown by the subsequent turn of events.
• On the 19th of September 2005 Mrs R. Pazvakawambwa wrote another letter to the City Valuer giving the available transfer details of Chombo. On the 11th of November 2005, the Town Clerk was back at Honey and Bleckenberg with the Chombo's details and requesting them to effect a transfer. The acting Director of Housing Services, James Chiyangwa, availed the lawyers with the title deeds to conform with their demands for documentation. This holding deed gave ownership to the City of Harare.
• It appears this was not enough. The lawyers, on 10 February 2006, advised the City Valuer that they needed more details and reminded him of their letter on the 11th of April 2005. Five days later, the lawyers - in another letter - complained about the non-delivery of the Agreement of Sale and the need for a change of land use. In particular, they raised the issue of 'conflict of interests' on the part of Chombo as he was both the beneficiary and the authority.
• To cut a long story short, as it reads like high-grade fiction, the council lawyers in another letter on 6th of June 2006 kept on highlighting the conflict of interest issue with the City Valuer. There was a lot inter-departmental activities and correspondence in the council as officials frantically tried to regularise the transfer of this piece of land to Chombo.
• By December 2006, L. Chimba, writing on behalf of the permanent secretary, informed Town House of a suggestion of a land swap with another piece of land in an unnamed low density suburb of Harare. Further exchanges took place until on 13th of June 2008 when L. Chimba informed the Town Clerk that the property must be transferred from Chombo to Chimeri as a way of handling the conflict of interest issue.
• Chiwanga then advised Honey and Blackenberg on 25 June 2008 that Chombo has since disposed of the land, which would make it easier for him to authorise the change of land use in capacity as the Minister administering the Act. Here came in another obstacle, and all this was happening without the knowledge of the 29 March 2008 MDC council.
• On 24 November 2008, the lawyers insisted on the fulfilment of the demands of the letter dated 11 April 2005; requested an agreement of sale for the purposes of Capital Gains by Zimra. They also requested the consent of the City of Harare.
• In December, Chiwanga gave the lawyers an Agreement of Sale between Chombo and Chimeri. In February 2009, the lawyers demanded proof of payment and advised that Chombo risked a heavy penalty from Zimra since he claimed to have sold the land in 2005 and did not pay Capital Gains Tax within a month as required by law.
• By 13 October 2009, no transfer could be possible. Chombo's ministry - once again — had a new permanent secretary, only identified as C.Gwada.
• On 28 October 2009, Chombo obtained a Capital Gains Tax Clearance Certificate, citing the date acquired by transferee as the 5 September 2003 between Chombo and Chimeri and done by one Theresa Chenjerai and Elias Foto, all said to be employees of Zimra.
• Honey & Blackenberg, in a letter dated 3 November 2009, sought advice from the city's rates department to determine Chombo's liability. It nearly took another year before the sale could be effected because of the opaqueness of the deal.
• On 26 October 2010, Chiwanga - the man implicated in all of Chombo's fraudulent land deals from previous investigations - advised the city treasurer that Sub-division K of Ntaba, Glen Lorne, had had its use changed from a designated public space to a residential property. Not surprisingly, this letter is dated 4 September 1996.

In conclusion, the MDC and hundreds of workers in the City of Harare and in the Inclusive Government are aware of Chombo's activities since Mugabe brought him into his Cabinet from a lecture room at the University of Zimbabwe in 1990s. Like the MDC, they are baffled as to why he remains in public office. For those who may be unaware, Chombo sits in the Zanu PF politburo as the secretary for land reform and resettlement.

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