Saviour vows to fire more MDC-T councils

via Saviour vows to fire more MDC-T councils – New Zimbabwe 30/09/2015

LOCAL Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has vowed to continue his onslaught on MDC-led urban authorities he says have routinely ransacked council coffers at rate payers’ expense.

The tough Zanu PF top politician was responding to questions from backbenchers during parliament’s Wednesday sitting.

MDC-T Glen View North MP Fani Munengami had challenged Kasukuwere to own up to the ills created by Zanu PF politicians who have irregularly parcelled out tracts of Harare city land to land barons.

Munengami linked the recurrent flooding of the city’s storm drains to the mushrooming of sprawling and un-serviced illegal settlements in various parts of the capital.

But Kasukuwere turned the matter on its head and placed the blame squarely on MDC led authorities, adding that land barons were mere fronts for influential city authorities.

“Horomori hombe dzema land barons iCity of Harare nema councillors (Harare authorities and councillors are the biggest sponsors of land barons),” he said.

Kasukuwere threatened to name council officials he said have even designated a city department to illegally transfer land to bogus housing cooperatives while pocketing the proceeds.

“The city council is supposed to be the vital cooperative that should be prioritising the interests of all Harare residents but if it now strays and start allocating land corruptly,” Kasukuwere said in Shona, adding, “they are now ignoring the interests of homeless residents.

“…The level of corruption in the city of Harare is terrifying.”

“It is an uphill task,” Kasukuwere continued while being heckled by an MDC-T MPs who said his own hands were not clean, “Corruption among urban authorities is so embarrassing and nauseating…city fathers are now behaving like people raping their own offspring.”

“Our biggest challenge is that most of our city fathers put their own greedy interests ahead of residents.”

The Zanu PF political commissar vowed to extend his crackdown on more corrupt councillors.

“As local government minister, my intentions are very evident,” he said.

“I have already cleaned up Gweru which was in the hands of very corrupt officials. This is the same thing that we considering with the rest of the country to relieve residents of corrupt councillors.”

Kasukuwere, who was recently moved from water resources to local government during a mini-cabinet reshuffle, has infuriated the MDC-T for his high-handed stance towards local government issues.

Chief among the illegalities, the MDC-T contends, have been his ouster of Gweru Mayor Hamutendi Kombayi and a handful of his councillors as well as his recent clean-up operation on street vendors.

Kasukuwere has also landed his support for the ouster of controversial Harare Town Clerk Tendai Mahachi by city mayor Bernard Manyenyeni.