Just when you think municipal corruption cannot get any more blatant. The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, ZACC, is apparently looking into the Kwekwe City Council. The issue is vendor money that seems to have vanished into thin air. The mayor there, Albert Zinhanga, confirmed the probe during a council meeting, stating they cannot discuss details because the audit report is now with ZACC. He was shutting down a question from a councilor named Solomon Matsa, who represents Ward 10.
Matsa is the one who originally sounded the alarm months ago. He accused the council's management of siphoning off thousands from vendor fees. His own estimate claims the council pulls in between a hundred and a hundred fifty grand U.S. from vendors every month. But according to him, only about four thousand of that actually make it into the official accounts. He has been pushing for the audit report for three months, getting nothing but radio silence until the mayor casually dropped the ZACC investigation as a reason to keep everything quiet. So the cycle is perfect: allegations of massive theft, a delayed internal audit, and now a state commission's investigation that conveniently prevents any public disclosure or accountability at the local level. Everyone gets to hide behind the ongoing probe.
Matsa is the one who originally sounded the alarm months ago. He accused the council's management of siphoning off thousands from vendor fees. His own estimate claims the council pulls in between a hundred and a hundred fifty grand U.S. from vendors every month. But according to him, only about four thousand of that actually make it into the official accounts. He has been pushing for the audit report for three months, getting nothing but radio silence until the mayor casually dropped the ZACC investigation as a reason to keep everything quiet. So the cycle is perfect: allegations of massive theft, a delayed internal audit, and now a state commission's investigation that conveniently prevents any public disclosure or accountability at the local level. Everyone gets to hide behind the ongoing probe.
