Zimbabwe: Mafume Running Harare City Council Like It's His Household - Top Official Accuses Mayor of Tyranny, Nepotism

31 January 2025

HARARE Mayor Jacob Mafume is embroiled in nepotism and authoritarian rule at Town House, a top council official has told the Harare Commission of Inquiry.

The Commission is probing the operations of Harare City Council from 2017 till date.

Executive Assistant Town Clerk, Mathew Marara, told the Commission how rife nepotism is at the City Council, implicating several top officials.

Mafume was accused by Marara of appointing Lovemore Chinoputsa to the position of Research and Protocol Officer without adhering to recruitment processes.

Marara described a chaotic and lawless environment at Town House, with Mafume at the centre of the recruitment of council workers without adhering to proper procedures.

"Specifically for the Mayor, when the Mayor occupied his office there was a Mayor's driver, who had been there for years but the Mayor was not happy. I do not know the reason with that driver and he brought in a certain youngster to be his driver.

"We were pushed to second him to the Mayor's office when the incumbent was still in office. Interestingly the one who came in did not even have the competence to drive a manual vehicle. He was competent in automatic vehicles," said Marara.

Mafume is accused of improperly suspending a council official, Samson Madzokere, who despite being absent from the City Council continues to receive a salary.

"No one at the council knows the preference of the Mayor with regards to the ERP that he wants he has called us to many meetings forcing us to take that particular company to do ERP and there are minutes and that is why Samson Madzokere is at home because of ERP not because he answered to a newspaper article," he said.

Last year, Mafume suspended Town Clerk Hosiah Chisango with the latter getting wind of this through social media and even rocked up at Town House reporting for duty.

Marara said there is bad blood between Chisango and Mafume which has led to numerous problems at the HCC.

"There is a direct interface between the Town Clerk and the Mayor. I talked to both of them, Chisango and the Mayor. I said they needed to sit down because of the disharmony that is between them because there was friction and the disharmony was affecting the Council as a whole.

"The problem is unlike the other Mayors like Mayor Masunda who could come to work once a week, the current one 0800 hours is in office and at the leaves end of the day but he is getting an allowance from government of US$95 as a Mayor. It tells you a big story," said Marara.

When he recently made his first appearance before the Commission, Mafume denied interfering in the work of the executive at the Town House.

"I meet a lot of people. I meet individual Councillors and committees. Even in the Act, if a Committee is in session and I the Mayor feel that I need to come into that Committee, I am allowed to go into that Committee," said Mafume.

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