The Harare Commission of Inquiry yesterday grilled Mr Nelson Chamisa, the former leader of CCC over his alleged role in illegally allocating over 5 000 stands and the regularisation of more than 300 housing cooperatives ahead of the 2023 harmonised elections.
This move was allegedly aimed at boosting his urban vote and countering President Mnangagwa's title deed scheme. The allegations, which surfaced during the ongoing public hearings, claim that Mr Chamisa directed Harare City councillors to fast-track the regularisation of housing cooperatives ahead of last year's harmonised elections.
Mr Chamisa was appearing before the commission to clarify allegations of interference that led to the alleged massive illegal allocation of land.
An audio recording featuring Councillor Blessing Duma, chairperson of the Harare City Council's Audit Committee, was replayed during the inquiry.
In the recording, Cllr Duma instructs fellow councillors to regularise every settlement in Harare, allegedly to counter President Mnangagwa's title deed scheme, citing a directive from Mr Chamisa.
However, when questioned about the recording, Mr Chamisa denied the allegations, saying he does not know Cllr Duma personally.
Mr Chamisa, however, conceded that "Tomfoolery" often occurs within CCC-run local authorities, and threw his councillors under the bus, accusing them of abandoning their mandate and running amok.
". . . But what I am aware of is that there is a lot of Tomfoolery and shenanigans within the context of local authorities," Mr Chamisa said.
"What bleeds my heart is the fact that each time councillors are elected on a party ticket, the moment they go into the council, they go bonkers, run amok, throw away all dictates of reason, throw away all dictates of allegiance and loyalty to the party . . .," he said.
When questioned further, on why he had failed to restrain councillors from illegally parcelling land, Mr Chamisa claimed that the councillors would often remind him that he had no power to regulate them, as they were only answerable to the electorate.
He also admitted before the commission that he had lost control of his councillors, adding that his decision to establish an Integrity and Accountability Panel to regulate their activities was rejected.
"We wanted to actually institute what we called an Integrity and Accountability Panel from the political party side to try and rein in councillors whom we felt were behaving in an untoward manner.
"Unfortunately, as we did that, they said, 'look, in terms of the law, there is no way the party can take us to account on anything because we are not governed by a party'. 'We are governed by the electorate. We are governed by the statutes. We are governed by the Urban Councils Act'. And on that score, then it becomes very difficult to bring to account, especially our councillors."
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Last month, the commission heard that at least 349 illegal housing cooperatives were hurriedly regularised during the run up to the 2023 elections.
It further emerged that only housing cooperatives with well-known members affiliated to Zanu PF were targeted for demolition and denied regularisation, while those with prominent CCC members were spared and granted regularisation.
