Chitown feels betrayed over Magaya ‘donation’

CHITUNGWIZA residents have expressed their anger over a controversial deal that, if approved, seeks to mortgage the town for 10 years to Wistmer Investments (Pvt) Ltd, Prophet Walter Magaya’s company.

Residents are not happy with the contents of a leaked Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between Chitungwiza and Wistmer Investments and feel betrayed by their councilors who are making such critical decisions without consulting them.

The MOA seeks the establishment of a collaborative relationship between Council and Wistmer for the preparation of the Chitungwiza Master Plan.

According to the MOA which is in possession of ZCN, if the deal goes through Wistmer shall enjoy “an exclusive and irrevocable Right of First Refusal to participate as the lead private partner for any Smart City Projects the Municipality intends to implement; and exclusive development rights to solely undertake Smart City Projects for an initial period of 10 years from the date of this Agreement”.

A lawyer who is a resident in the town said that if the deal comes through in that form Chitungwiza Municipality  will be under the control and management of Magaya for 10 years.

He added that the proposed agreement bars Council from applying Public Procurement and Corporate Act.

 In other words this agreement supersedes Tendering procedures, also there are no commercial terms that clearly state what it is for Chitungwiza Municipality. Therein lies the catch, and its deliberate.

“Magaya’s company can demand as much land and or payments as he wants if they so wish and council can do nothing about it because there are no restrictions.

“Wistmer is the sole developer, no one else, not even council. Should council have its own Master Plan and Smart City concept it has to pass it to Magaya’s company first for ratification?

“He will demand his pound of flesh emanating from this agreement and can sit on it for 120 days deciding to refuse to give the municipality the go ahead.

Chitungwiza Progressive Residents Association spokesperson Gift Kurupati said the councillors  were no longer representing the interests of residents.

“We as Residents of Chitungwiza we are not happy about what is happening at Chitungwiza municipality, giving Wistmer Investments the right of first refusal would be an act of madness as Residents

Chitungwiza municipality is a public institution but they want privatize it through this MOA with Wistmer Investments actually what it means is the whole Chitungwiza municipality is now owned by Wistmer Investments

 Outspoken residents leader Marvellous Kumalo said that residents  have written a letter as stakeholders to council raising their concerns on the contents of that proposed memorandum.

Kumalo said that have also sent a copy of the MOA to lawyers for legal advise  and flag out issues of legal concern that are in that MOA

“We have gone through the proposed Memorandum of Agreement, the contents are shocking, and they are disgusting and are actually smelling in terms of the proposals from that private partner.

What we will also do is to be guided by the provisions of section 14 of the constitution which speaks to devolution of power and responsibility to lower tiers of government”

Kumalo said such issues are handled by councillors and residents will not accept a situation where the local authority hands over or surrenders its authority to central government.

 “Where in terms of every time we reach out to them in terms of being accountable and transparency then they introduce a hidden hand through surrendering their powers and responsibilities to central government and failing to account. That will not intimidate stakeholders.

The Chitungwiza Almalgated Vendors and Informal Traders Association has called for an urgent meeting with council to discuss the matter and explore potential solutions that prioritise all the parties involved

A well-placed source said that council officials are also worried about the way in which the

“This began as a donation, now some of the demands from Magaya’s company are too much.”

“At this stage, this is only an MOA,   we appeal to residents to be patient with us as we are working flat out to address the sticking points in this document.

Efforts to get a comment from Prophet Walter Magaya were fruitless at the time of going to print.