“My house was hijacked for 17 years and the money from the rent was given legs and arrived into the personal accounts of the public office bearers. What ZACC has been doing since March, apart from blocking, is cover up for this naked corruption,” Mawere said.
South Africa based Zimbabwean businessman Mutumwa Mawere wants the Zimbabwe Anti-corruption Commission (ZACC) to investigate how Shabanie Mashaba Mines (SMM), which is under state curatorship since 2004, has been collecting rent on his private property for 17 years.
In an interview with Nehanda Radio on Wednesday, Mawere said he wrote to ZACC accusing SMM administrator Arafas Gwaradzimba of appropriating his 2 Durland Close property in Mt Pleasant, Harare.
Mawere claims Gwaradzimba said he did not know anything to do with the house but argues “how come SMM was receiving money from a tenant that SMM signed and he doesn’t know anything about that contract.”
Against this background, Mawere reported the matter to ZACC in March 2021 and up until now the businessman feels nothing is being done about the case.
Mawere says he reached out to ZACC spokesman John Makamure and after several exchanges he claims he was eventually blocked on Whatsapp.
Mawere says fellow businessman Fred Mutanda “warned me that going to ZACC is a waste of time. Then I shared it with Makamure. So Makamure took exception to what I had shared. I had said we are testing ZACC. It’s not good for Fred to say ZACC is useless when we had not tested it.
“Now I can tell you because, since March until today nothing has been solved and no one has been arrested on a straightforward matter,” Mawere said.
Mawere further states that when he shared Mutanda’s sentiments against ZACC, Makamure got angry (on behalf of ZACC) and blocked him. He argues that Makamure did this to “cover up for this naked corruption”.
Nehanda Radio reached out to Makamure who gave his side of the story saying; “How can Mawere say am covering up corruption when I am the one who referred him to our investigation unit and a docket for his case was opened up meaning the case is under investigation.
“I only blocked him because he started sharing other information I felt was irrelevant to the case,” Makamure said.
A defiant Mawere stated that Makamure was “too angry to be in a public office.”
He added: “If a man can block you, clothed with little ZACC power, can express that power by blocking people then I shudder to think what kind of activities in the name of anti-corruption can legitimately take place under the cover of darkness.
“My house was hijacked for 17 years and the money from the rent was given legs and arrived into the personal accounts of the public office bearers. What ZACC has been doing since March, apart from blocking, is cover up for this naked corruption,” he said