Money- laundering refugees flood Harare
STAFF WRITER
Several refugees who reportedly fled Tongogara camp in Manicaland province are flooding the streets of Harare where they are involved in money-laundering, it has emerged.
Harare Permanent Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Tafadzwa Muguti said a blitz was undertaken to cleanse the streets of the refugees in money-laundering and dozens of them have been arrested and deported.
“Refugees, some from Tongogara Refugee camp, are flooding the streets and we have engaged in a blitz where we have rounded up some of them and have been arrested and deported,” Muguti said.
ZimHub has observed that a number of foreigners have flooded downtown Harare and other suburbs including Waterfalls where they are engaged in trade of groceries and other commodities.
Most of the foreigners are housed along Simon Vengai Muzenda Street in Harare.
Speaking on the state of service delivery in Harare, Muguti said it was deplorable due to among other factors, corruption.
Muguti said it was not politicking for the government to ask for accountability at Town House adding it was critical for elected officials to be accountable to the people and provide answers to central government.
“If we ask these questions, and by the way as government we are yet to ask anything (on abuse of allowances). What I have done is to tell the town clerk (Engineer Hosea Chisango) to respond to the media. The issue with Harare is it is an opposition stronghold and people will take anything we ask as politicking. It’s not politicking.”
Muguti promised to deal with issues of land barons but accused victims of not coming in to assist with critical information to secure strong cases.
Harare has been hard hit by cases of corruption and poor service delivery that opposition elected officials blame on interference by central government.
On its part, the central government insists corruption and lack of capacity has affected service delivery.