OUTGOING president of the Association of Rural District Councils (ARDC), Killer Zivhu, has accused the association’s executives of going on a looting spree, including awarding themselves obscene allowances, taking advantage of loopholes in the organisation’s constitution.
BY SILAS NKALA
Speaking during the association’s special congress in Bulawayo yesterday, Zivhu claimed that top executives awarded themselves vehicles and as much as $300 000 in allowances.
The association comprises rural district council chief executives and chairpersons from across the country’s 10 provinces.
“We do not have a proper constitution. Ours is stored in the computer. The one that we have, anytime you think of doing something, you go to the computer and alter it to suit your needs,” he claimed.
“As a result of that, we have three missing cars. We had a Toyota Fortuner (2017) which cost us $98 000, which just disappeared because of our (pliable) constitution. So we cannot continue to operate under the same constitution, which allows our property to disappear just like that.”
Zivhu said some top executives illegally awarded themselves allowances in excess of $300 000 taking advantage of the loopholes in the constitution.
“We cannot let the current chairpersons go before we finalise this. This is the reason why we called for this special congress. Yes, we have advocated for many things such as improvement in the welfare of the chairpersons including allocating them vehicles,” he said.
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“But each and every time we are to reach an agreement with the minister responsible, the minister is changed and a new one comes in.
“We are negotiating behind the scenes. As we all know the pioneers of such issues, at times are not the beneficiaries of what they started. We started this lobby, we are not going to benefit, but those who are coming back will benefit, of which I know 60% of the chairpersons are returning.”
Zivhu admitted that the majority of council chairpersons were using the association’s vehicles to campaign for the ruling Zanu PF party.
ARDC second vice-president Patrick Chidakwa said the scam was unearthed by a private audit firm, PKF Auditors.
