Opposition councillors in Marondera clashed with Marondera Central legislator Lawrence Katsiru (Zanu PF) and mayor Anthony Makwindi (Zanu PF) during a meeting held on Monday over two council beasts the pair donated to the ruling party’s women’s league.
BY STAFF REPORTER
The councillors blasted management for allowing the Zanu PF stalwarts to take the cattle from a council farm without payment.
Ward 7 councillor Dominic Matangira (MDC-T) said Katsiru, who owns a farm, should have donated his beasts to his party.
“I want to know whether the cattle which were donated by his worship the mayor and honourable Member of Parliament have been paid for. We cannot run council like that. If Katsiru wanted to donate to his party, he could have done that on his own. He has a farm with cattle, why didn’t he donate those? He must pay for the cattle and we need council to tell us whether they got the money,” he said.
In response, Makwindi said he had taken note of the councillors’ sentiments and promised to check with the finance director on whether a payment was done for the beasts.
This is not the first time Marondera Municipality has been accused of abusing council projects, particularly cattle ranching.
Last year, the local authority touched off a storm after its finance department was implicated in a massive scam involving the sale of cattle from council’s Elmswood Farm without approval.
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According to an audit, council sold all its bulls putting the project’s calving rate in jeopardy.
The audit said the cattle ranching project was not self-sustaining given the employment costs, hence, recommended recapitalisation or winding up of the project.
In 2013, the municipality had more than 200 cattle and goats, but according to a December 2015 audit, only 39 cattle and 64 goats remained.
