ZVIMBA Rural District Council (ZRDC) chief executive officer Peter Hlohla has been nabbed by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission over alleged illegal land deals. Hlohla was detained at Mabelreign Police Station and is expected to appear in court today.
by Staff Reporter
Zacc commissioner in charge of investigations, Goodson Nguni confirmed the arrest and referred questions to the anti-graft body’s spokesperson Phyllis Chikundura whose phone was not being answered.
According to Zacc sources, Hlohla was arrested on allegations of prejudicing council of millions of dollars by doctoring receipts and land sizes and pocketing the difference from sales realised on council land.
“He will appear at the Harare Magistrate’s Court tomorrow (today). Investigations are ongoing,” said the source.
More charges were still being prepared for Hlohla and most of them are likely to emanate from a whistle-blower’s report in 2016 that exposed illicit land deals that have prejudiced ZRDC which was by then reeling under a $2,4 million tax debt.
According to the report, the alleged scam included awarding of contracts to companies to develop the upmarket Sandton suburb in Mt Hampden — the site for the proposed new capital — without going to tender, double allocation of stands, undervaluing of land allocated to cronies and fraudulently reducing sizes of stands, among others. Hlohla was linked to a shelf company, Spincraft, which was allegedly created and allocated land at Rainham Farm measuring 2,6 hectares. The land was then subdivided at the council’s cost and reallocated without charging cession fees under the instruction of Hlohla, prejudicing the council of thousands of dollars.
Hlohla was accused of making several unilateral decisions without council approval, further prejudicing the local authority of millions of dollars in compensation, including allocating himself allowances using government rates to go to Switzerland when council had not approved the budget.
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He also allegedly awarded a contract without going to tender for the subdivision of plots in Rainham and without due process, which required that the said plots be repossessed and in some instances, proceeded to downsize the plots as a way of clearing arrears without due authority of a resolution guiding him on the computation.
The ZRDC boss also allegedly agreed to over-price compensation rates for Rainham Abattoir in Nyabira, prejudicing the local authority.
