KWEKWE City Council is likely to pocket just over half a million dollars after agreeing to sell over three hectares of its prime land to Africa Advance Holdings for the development of a shopping mall.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA The issue came out during a special council meeting recently.
Africa Advance Holdings, which recently opened a retail outlet, Dazzle Super Stores in Kwekwe, has applied for 15 000 square metres of land in the Midlands city to expand its business.
The company is fronted by South African Brennan De Bruyn, while 51% of its shares are in the hands of Zimbabweans believed to be top politicians in Midlands province.
Councillors who spoke to NewsDay on condition of anonymity believe the top politicians were behind the deal which was struck during a second special council meeting held recently after the first meeting ended in a stalemate.
Councillors had refused to endorse the deal accusing management of trying to railroad them into rubberstamping it. Town clerk Emanuel Musara organised the first special council meeting held in Gweru on August 25 to discuss the proposed sale of stand 7612 which was initially earmarked for a council all-purpose hall.
After travelling to Gweru, the councillors refused to endorse the proposal that the deal had already been approved by management and was only coming to councillors as a formality.
Sources who attended the Gweru meeting said councillors were unhappy that during the official opening of Dazzle Super Stores, De Bruyn announced that he had already been allocated the stand.
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“Most of us were livid that we heard of the sale of the land from De Bruyn first before we knew the stand was up for sale. Even Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa repeated that the stand for the mall had been found and bought weeks after management came to us asking for our recommendation,” said a source.
The councillors finally approved the deal on Tuesday demanding Africa Advance Holdings to pay $16,67/m² which would translate to $514 900 if they paid cash and at $20/m² if they wanted to pay in instalments.
Deputy mayor Aaron Sithole, who chaired the second special council meeting, said all the issues raised by councillors had been sorted out.
“We have approved the deal after all concerns raised by councillors were ironed out. We agreed that this is a good investment for the city and would make economic sense to sell the stand than to hold it for a project council has no money to fund,” he said.
