CHITUNGWIZA Municipality is yet to pay allowances amounting to $300 000 owed to the probe team set up by Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo amid reports that the local authority was in the red.
BY MOSES MATENGA STAFF REPORTER
The local authority has been struggling to pay workers’ salaries in the last three months. Last year, council workers went without salaries for over six months.
Chombo appointed his deputy Joel Biggie Matiza to investigate illegal parceling out of stands in the dormitory town on undesignated ares after discoveries that thousands of home-seekers were building houses on unserviced land, areas designated for schools or on wetlands.
The Matiza probe team was also tasked with investigating cases of illegal settlements in and around Chitungwiza and Manyame Rural District Council.
Mayor Philip Mutoti told NewsDay on Wednesday that council was not in a position to pay the probe team given the financial difficulty they were facing. The council’s financial position led to poor service delivery.
“We are yet to pay them because we don’t have money,” Mutoti said.
“The city is bankrupt and instead of collecting revenue of $4 million, we are only getting $280 000 a month while workers’ salaries need $1,7 million. If they get that $300 000, it means there won’t be salaries for workers and no service delivery to talk about.”
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The 16-member probe team appointed to investigate shady land deals and the mushrooming of illegal structures in Seke and Chitungwiza was gobbling $15 000 in daily allowances for the duration of the investigation.
At $900 per day each, the 16 members were set to gobble a whopping $300 000 at the end of their 21-day stay in the town.
Chitungwiza is suffering the consequences of the cancellation of debts on rates by government prior to the July 31 elections and is getting close to nothing to meet their operations.
The city has in the last years been dogged by corruption that has led to service delivery dipping and the town was prejudiced of millions of dollars leading to the arrest of former Town Clerk Godfrey Tanyanyiwa who is serving a jail sentence.
