More government officials are living in hotels, as it emerged this week that Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Mabel Chinomona had clocked more than two years, yet another case of government money being wasted on top officials’ accommodation, while Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko is edging close to 300 days.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
Revelations of the abuse of State funds to keep senior Zanu PF officials living in the lap of luxury emerged after NewsDay revealed last week that Mphoko was yet to check out of the luxurious Rainbow Towers, almost a year since he moved in.
It is the latest revelation that Chinomona has been in a hotel for two years that is likely to revile the already overburdened taxpayer.
“She has been staying in a hotel since her election as Deputy Speaker in 2013, two years ago,” an insider revealed.
“Her bill should be running into millions. She has made this place her home.”
Chinomoma, like Mphoko, is staying at the plush Rainbow Towers hotel, but she insisted she did not put up at the hotel daily, but only when she was on Parliament business.
“Indeed as a presiding officer of Parliament, I must have a government house, but I do not have one,” she defended herself.
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“It’s not as if I am staying here every day, only when I am on Parliament business do I put up in a hotel like any other MP.
“It could be that I have been asked to attend or preside over a seminar so I have to stay in a hotel.”
Chinomona, the Mutoko North legislator, last month had her property auctioned by a local bank for a loan she had reportedly failed to service.
Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda seemed angered by questions on why his deputy was still staying in a hotel two years after she was appointed.
“So what is your problem with that? Talk to her,” he said curtly.
Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda at first answered his mobile, but when the question was posed to him, he abruptly cut the conversation and from then on either did not answer his mobile phone or terminated the calls without speaking.
Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development minister Nyasha Chikwinya is another high-profile government official who, insiders said, moved into a hotel as soon as she was appointed minister despite having a house in Harare.
“Chikwinya has a house in Harare, but as soon as she was appointed in July, she moved into a hotel and has been staying there since,” a source said.
Contacted for comment, Chikwinya, the Mutare South lawmaker, was quick to say she had since moved into a government house.
“I have since been allocated a house, although it required a bit of renovating, I am staying there now,” she was quick to point out.
Chikwinya could not be drawn into commenting further on the matter.
Opposition MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu was scathing in his response when asked to comment on the issue.
“If a revolutionary icon such as the late [former Vice-President] Joshua Nkomo could happily stay in a modest government house in Mandara, why should little-known politicians such as Phelekezela Mphoko say they are too big and important to stay in a house in Ballantyne Park?
“As for Mabel Chinomona, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, the situation is even more distressing and disturbing.
“After all, Parliament doesn’t sit all the time. Hers is just a ceremonial and low level part-time job,” he said.
United Kingdom-based social and political commentator, Alex Magaisa said Mphoko and others are exhibiting Zanu PF’s culture of looting “cultivated in the last 35 years”.
“It’s yet another example of abuse of public funds that the system does not practice the frugality that it preaches,” he said.
“It is part of the financial haemorrhage that is at the centre of the collapse of the public sector and public services, nobody cares.”
Democracy activist Joy Mabenge said the NewsDay reports were only the tip of an iceberg, calling on the officials to “pay back the money”.
“It shows how indifferent these political elites are to the plight of the suffering taxpayers and their dependants, who are going months on end without basics like electricity, water, healthcare or decent meals,” he said.
“Surely how many antiretroviral drugs could be bought from VP Mphoko’s R1,7 million bill alone?”
Auditor-General Mildred Chiri declined to comment on the matter.
“I do not have the finer details save for what we read in the papers. Please get in touch with the President’s Office, they would know better,” she said.
It is feared that more ministers, particularly those who were recently appointed and come from outside Harare, have also been checked into luxurious hotels.
At least three new ministers are from outside Harare.
