Redcliff municipal officials and councillors are reportedly up in arms against a Zanu PF special interest councillor, Freddy Kapuya, whom they accuse of bribing fellow councillors to award him a $550 000 tender to construct toilets in Torwood suburb.
Kapuya’s company, Wackdrive Properties, was recently awarded the tender to build 534 toilets in the suburb. But Kapuya, who twice lost the bid to be elected into council on a Zanu PF ticket, on Tuesday dismissed the bribery allegations saying he had won the tender above board.
“I declared my interests and was not part of the procurement committee which sat to decide the winning tender. My company is professional,” he said.
Former Redcliff mayor Rogers Chisi, who is a member of the task force which met Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo seeking funds to build the toilets, confirmed that Kapuya, through his company, had been awarded the tender.
He said Kapuya was part of the taskforce that was asked to look for the toilet funds and that as such, the special interest councillor was privy to the budget projections for the toilet construction ahead of the tender process.
“We went around with him seeking for bailout funds for Redcliff and indeed he was part of the team that got the $550 000 and knew the budget projections ahead of the tendering process,” said Chisi.
A council source who preferred to remain anonymous said Kapuya was part of the taskforce that met Chombo over the toilet funds.
“Kapuya was part of the special taskforce team which went to meet Chombo seeking the funds to build those toilets. He had inside information and therefore it was easy for him to win that tender,” the source said.
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Redcliff mayor Joseph Matewa confirmed two appointments to meet NewsDay for an interview over the issue but on both occasions, he failed to make good his promise. Further efforts to contact him for comment were unsuccessful.
To date, Kapuya’s company has built 420 toilets as part of the first phase after receiving part of the money from Treasury.
In a related matter, Kapuya was recently relieved of his position as a Zanu PF Kwekwe district official following his appointment as a special interest councillor.
Zanu PF sources said they were angered by Chombo’s decision to appoint him a councillor without their consent. Kapuya declined to comment on these allegations.
