via Mutasa: Behind the bitterness | The Herald June 26, 2015
FORMER Zanu-PF secretary of Administration and ex-Presidential Affairs Minister Mr Didymus Mutasa is broke and is being pursued by creditors and service providers.
It has emerged that Mr Mutasa used his political clout while in Government as a shield and survival arsenal.
Reliable sources told The Herald that Mr Mutasa annexed a neighbouring Rusape Town Council low-density house — Number 4 Mbuya Nehanda Street (also known as Stand Number 160) — “for security reasons” when he was minister.
“He demanded that council leases him the house close to two decades ago. Out of fear, council consented. After taking over the house, Mutasa refused to pay rates and is still in possession of the property as we speak,” said the source.
Following his sacking, council is now claiming back its property.
It has, however, offered him to buy the house as a sitting tenant, but his pockets are empty.
This gives council the chance to reclaim its property — a mansion by Rusape standards. Council this week communicated its decision to Mr Mutasa.
In a letter to Mr Mutasa dated June 24 2015, Rusape Town Council secretary Mr Joshua Maligwa wrote: “Pursuant to our letter dated January 6 2000 and March 17 2015, council at its 291st Regular Full Council meeting resolved through resolution FC14/05/15 that: council offers you to purchase the house at stand 160 Rusape Township and developments thereon at a cost of US$45 000.00.”
Council gave Mr Mutasa seven days to accept the offer or it repossesses its property.
“You should accept the offer within seven days of receipt of this offer letter and make the full payment by 31st December 2015. Should you fail to take up the offer, council will be obliged to retain and take possession of the house. Please be guided accordingly.”
As if that is not enough, Makoni Rural District Council (MRDC) is also pursuing Mr Mutasa for non-payment of rentals for his farm on the outskirts of Rusape.
He is failing to pay the $3 per hectare fee and now owes MRDC $5 670 for last year. The rentals are payable annually.
Mr Mutasa was allocated 400 hectares of land at Lonecop Farm during the land redistribution exercise.
When he was Minister of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, he used his office to annex neighbouring farms including one that belonged to national hero Cde Josiah Tungamirai.
Council had to institute legal proceedings to force him to pay the rentals.
Unable to raise the $5 670 to MRDC, Mr Mutasa is understood to have offered a payment plan.
“We give them invoices every end of the year. Didymus Mutasa did not respond. We referred the matter to our lawyers and I am informed by the lawyers that he has offered a payment plan,” said MRDC chief executive officer Mr Edward Pise.
“He has offered to pay $500 a month, but the problem is that another $4 800 in rentals for this year is almost due.”
Council sources said Mr Mutasa refused to settle the debts while he was still a Government minister.
When asked why the MRDC appeared to target Mr Mutasa only among those failing to pay rentals, Mr Pise said: “Among politicians with farms here, Mutasa is the only one who was failing to settle his debt.”
The Herald is also reliably informed that Mr Mutasa is failing to settle electricity bills for his Lonecop Farm believed to have ballooned to thousands of dollars.
“He was recently switched off by Zesa and ordered to make a down payment of $30 000 and this means he owes the power utility a lot in bills,” said a source.
COMMENTS
That it is how the game of Zanu-Mugabe politics is played in Zim. It is called the politics of patronage and is like “chikwambo”, you hold on to it and if you let go you die, so you keep it hanging on you and feed it…you want to walk away and it will ask you “kupi?”(Where?). Note all who were at the core of Zanu and left have died mysteriously, are now beggars or have run away and now leave in other countries.
Sorry vaMutasa. Even those who hold on today are desperate to leave but know the consequence if they do as the Zanu “demon” holds them back. It will surely get you…sure when anaMavhaire say,”bhora mugedhi” they know the demon they are dealing with.
Good he deserves it no pity for murderers
OK “Herald”. A question for your newspaper;
Do you want to tell us that it was only Mutasa who did these things that you are now telling us about?
Or are you only splitting on him because he fell out of favor with the Party?
And whilst you are about it, can you tell us if ever the President and other senior members have ever paid their ZESA bill that was reported so inconveniently when the Unity government was still in place?
Do you want to be relevant for once or you just want to waffle over matters that are of concern to the majority of Zimbabweans. Here is a man who used to wield enormous political power to the extent of grabbing a number of pieces of land in Rusape and other outlying areas. Once again, Mr Mutasa uses his political influence to grab a council house in the area and lies to the nation that he paid for it. Should we ignore this abuse of power that has come to the attention of the nation and waste our time in debating on issues that have not been brought before us? Right now we are debating on Mr Mutasa’s unbecoming behavior and nobody else.
Ko chanetsi chii nhai Mr Mutasa. Zvainakaka muri pachigaro muchiisa mitemo yavekutedzerwa ne ZANU PF ne hurumende. Mitemo yacho ndiyo yevekutevedzerwa kuti mubve pachigaro chamaimbo titonga nayo. Manga muchida kuti ichinjwe here parizvino nekuti nhasi vamwe vokutongai. Ihiwaka nhai sekuru Mutasa chiregai mitemo yamakasiya ichisevenzawo kwamuri.
Mukuru wenyika President Mugabe vane simba ramakavapa imi kuti vanogona kukubvisa pachigaro kana vaona kuti zvakakodzera. Zvadaro imi hamugone kuzvipikisa nekuti zviri pambiro remutemo wamakaisa mu parliament.
Imba yamakatora zvechisimba kwa Rusape inofanira kudzoserwa varidzi vayo. Ndiyo inonzi pachingezi ‘rule of law’ yamava kuti haimo mu Zimbabwe. Zvino hamunyari here Mr Mutasa