ATOP City of Harare official was allegedly threatened with death by two unnamed councillors after he refused to approve their request for allowances to attend a workshop.
Acting chamber secretary, Warren Chiwawa, confirmed receiving death threats from the councillors during a full council meeting last week.
The matter came to light after councillor, Denford Ngadziore, criticised Chiwawa for threatening to deal with the unnamed councillors.
Chiwawa said he was not taking the matter lightly as he feared for his life. “You want me to shut up when I am threatened with death,” Chiwawa responded. “I said I will deal with them in terms of the law. “I will report to the police and that's the deal I am going to do, and I am going to do it. “I am the one who's been threatened with death... what I said was within my rights that I am going to report to the police and the ministry. “It’s not a threat to their lives.”
Ngadziore, however, sided with the councillors, “What the chamber secretary did was just the same as what those councillors did,” Ngadziore said. “He said after this meeting he wanted to deal with them.”
Harare mayor Jacob Mafume told councillors that the matter could not be dealt with during a plenary session. “We will not be able to deal with such issues in a plenary session,” Mafume said. “Councillors just know that when you are trying to help others, you might make it worse for them.” Harare city council was put on spotlight during a commission of inquiry set by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to investigate the operations of the City of Harare regarding financial management issues dating back to 2017.
The full scale of the councillors’ lavish spending spree came to light during the hearings. It emerged that the council squandered a staggering ZiG230 million, about US$16 million, on workshops alone in just eight months, last year.
The City of Harare’s acting finance director Godfrey Kusangaya could not help, but spill the beans under sharp cross-examination from Harare lawyer Thabani Mpofu. It emerged that between June 6 and 8, the council blew through a staggering ZiG154,6 million or US$11 million equivalent in Kadoma.
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A week later, the councillors were back at the same hotel for a one-night riskbased audit plan event, costing a cool US$122 000. On May 29, seven councillors blew US$2300 on lunch at the now-abandoned Mayoral Mansion in Gunhill.
In September, nearly 20 councillors from the human resources committee demanded 120 litres of fuel each for a working trip to Victoria Falls despite a bus being provided.
In November 2023, council officials chose to attend a workshop in Nyanga at the height of a cholera crisis. The government responded by banning the City of Harare from holding workshops outside the capital.
