Millions Vanish as Corruption rocks Gweru City Council

BREAKING

Rot at Gweru City Council: Millions Vanish as Corruption and Collapse Grip Local Governance

By Delicious Mathuthu

Gweru - A scathing audit report by the Parliament Public Accounts Committee has lifted the lid on systemic corruption, financial mismanagement and deliberate administrative sabotage at Gweru City Council, revealing deep rot that threatens the foundation of local governance in the city.

From missing millions to the mysterious collapse of the previous Go Beer, a municipal subsidiary, the findings paint a picture of a council crippled by incompetence, unaccountability and possible criminal conduct.

The latest City of Gweru completed audit report, for the year ending December 2020, released on Thursday, June 19, 2025, reveals that part of the financial mismanagement storm is the unexplained disappearance of ZWL$17.2 million (about US$210 000 at the time) from council accounts, a figure the Auditor-General said could not be substantiated due to missing records and failed bank reconciliations.

Parliamentary debates following the report described the chaos in stark terms.

“This is not just negligence, it’s organised looting.

“They knew very well what they were doing. The systems were deliberately collapsed so they could steal from the residents of Gweru," Gutu South Zanu Pf Legislator and Chief Whip of the ruling party, Honourable Pupurai Togarepi said.

The report also exposes, perhaps one of the most disturbing chapters in the council’s scandals, the then Go Beer Investments, once a pillar of Gweru’s economic activity.

The committee found that Go Beer ceased operations in 2012, but was nonetheless handed ZWL$2.94 million (about US$45 000) by the council in 2019 as a ‘rescue package’.

That investment vanished without records, the report reveals, without accountability and without return.

In 2020, Gweru City Council was led by Mayor Josiah Makombe, now Gweru Urban legislator, and the then Deputy Mayor Cleopas Shiri, presiding over 18 MDC Alliance councillors, who some are now members of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).

The current Mayor, Councillor Martin Chivhoko, then chaired the Finance Committee.

Key executives included Town Clerk Elizabeth Gwatipedza, who was later dismissed by councillors through a council resolution and replaced by Acting Town Clerk Vakayi Douglas Chikwekwe, who later resigned following the launch of investigations against him.

Michael Verenga served as Acting Finance Director, with Owen Masimba as deputy, positions they continue to hold to date.

Some executives and elected officials have, in the past, argued that some of the financial turmoil at the City of Gweru was inherited.

“There’s no record of what happened to the money or the assets.

“Go Beer had over 1,000 cattle at its peak. Today, not a single beast is accounted for," Gweru Urban legislator Hon. Makombe admitted.

The Committee has since called on the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) to investigate the Go Beer collapse before 31 August 2025.

Norton Legislator, Hon. Richard Tsvangirai, said the Gweru issue needs to be attended with urgency.

“Public money cannot just disappear without consequence. This is not a technical audit, it’s an indictment of a culture of impunity,” he said.

The report also revealed that Gweru City Council was collecting beer levy from Delta Corporation on a cash basis, in violation of accounting standards that require accrual-based reporting.

Worse still, Ingwebu Breweries had not submitted any sales schedules and had not remitted a single cent in beer levy to the council.

The levies are meant for social amenities.

“This opens the door wide for corruption. How many community centres, clinics or refuse trucks could have been funded by that levy?

"Instead, the breweries operate like ghost entities, unchecked and unaccountable," Hurungwe East Legislator, Hon. Chenjerai Kangausaru said.

The Traditional Beer Act requires breweries to remit levies to local authorities.

The Committee recommended legislative amendments to compel compliance, and a deadline of 31 August 2025 was set for implementation.

Accounting Anarchy: No Books, No Bank Reconciliations, No Shame

According to the Auditor-General, Gweru City Council could not provide bank reconciliation statements or supporting documentation for bank balances worth over ZWL$17 million.

The Council blamed a malfunctioning PROMUN accounting system and understaffing.

Parliament, however, did not buy the excuse.

“Even my grandmother with a tuckshop knows how much she earned and what she spent,” Hon. Pupurai Togarepi said.

“These people are driving the best cars in town, yet they cannot account for public funds. It’s theft, plain and simple.”

The Committee concluded that the council’s systems were “deliberately run down to create an environment where financial mismanagement thrives.”

It recommended the urgent recruitment of qualified finance personnel and the replacement of the PROMUN system with a proper Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that complies with international public sector accounting standards (IPSAS), which the city management appears to be lackadaisical about.

The Committee also further found that Gweru City Council had failed to maintain or update an asset register.

Roads, sewer systems, and bridges, public infrastructure worth millions, were not recorded in financial statements.

“This is gross negligence,” part of the report reads. “Without asset revaluation and auditing, the city is flying blind,” it said.

The council admitted it deferred asset revaluation due to limited resources, a defence that Murewa South Legislator Hon. Takawota Mangondo dismissed.

“If you cannot even value what you own, how can you expect anyone to believe you are capable of managing public resources?” He said.

Among the more damning revelations was the issue of unsupported expenditures where in some cases, payments were made without vouchers or documentation.

Original records were said to have been misplaced or lost during previous commissions’ investigations.

Hon.Tsvangirai said such behaviour without consequences promotes rot in local authorities.

“This is unacceptable. When you lose documentation worth millions of dollars and there are no consequences, you normalize corruption,” he said.

The Committee has directed Gweru City Council to implement robust internal controls, strengthen record-keeping policies, and ensure that every payment is supported by documentation in line with the Public Finance Management Act.

While much of the blame has been laid on administrators and finance officers, MPs questioned the role of city councillors in enabling or ignoring the decay.

“These councillors were elected to provide oversight, but what we’re seeing is gross dereliction of duty. Either they are incompetent or complicit," Makoni South MP, Hon. Albert Nyakuedza said.

Mbizo legislator, Hon. Corban Madzivanyika said those responsible must be suspended and placed on forced leave pending investigations. He said there must be consequences and such administrative chaos is the reason why people have lost trust in councils.

The House also resolved that the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works be summoned to report quarterly on financial reforms in local authorities in general.

After the exposure of the serious corruption allegations, MPs demanded forensic audits of all Gweru City Council subsidiaries and fast-tracked prosecutions by ZACC.

Hon. Kangausaru said accountability is a key to
success in the country's devolution drive.

“Devolution without accountability is simply decentralised failure. We cannot entrust local authorities with public funds if they treat the law as optional,” he said.

Weighing in on the Gweru City financial situation, Hwange Central Legislator Hon. Daniel Molokela-Tsiye said the Go Beer collapse, the missing records and the vanished millions all adds up to a broken systems and a broken culture.

"If we fail to act now, we send a message that corruption pays,” he said.