CIO Boss Named In Land Grab
A residents’ leader in Guruve, Mashonaland Central province, has accused a Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) district head, Emmanuel Dhinga, of threatening him with unspecified action for reporting corrupt land deals involving security agents to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC).
Mackaswel Basiyavo, the Combined Guruve Residents and Rate Payers Association chairperson, told Grazers News that Dhinga, a District Intelligence Officer (DIO), requested a meeting with him.
Dhinga reportedly arrived for the meeting late in the evening in the company of unidentified colleagues and ordered Basiyavo to drop the ZACC case.
ZACC is processing the case—reference number 67/07/2020—that relates to the illegal sale of state land by local authority employees in Guruve.
Basiyavo told Grazers News that other government and state security agents are part of the “cartel”, with Dhinga reportedly coordinating the alleged land grab. He said:
He (Dhinga) called me (on 29 March 2021) at 7 pm to meet him at (the Guruve bus station). Next to his official car, a Nissan twin cab was an unmarked Ford Ranger twin cab with suspicious occupants inside.
He demanded to have the list of those accused of corruption in the case and threatened me with unspecified action if I did not drop the case.
I have moved my family to a secret house and do not know what will happen to me.
About 20 commonage stands in the Guruve Airstrip area that were supposed to benefit less privileged people in the community were offered to privileged CIO officers for free. Each stand has an estimated value of US$2 600.
When contacted for a comment, Dhinga asked for the identity of the Grazers News reporter and asked how he could help but when he was told of the purpose of the call, the line went dead and was not reachable after that.
He did not respond to text messages sent to him.
