Gutu CCC Councillor loses US$4.5k to bogus NGO officer
Brian Rungano Temba
Citizens Coalition for Change’s love for non-governmental organisations backfired for a Gutu councilor deployed by the party, when he lost money raised by the community in an elaborate scam.
Councillor for Ward 27 Gutu RDC, Cllr Jefrey Tangemhare is in the eye of a storm after losing US$4500 in an NGO ponzi scheme.
Residents in the area, which falls under Chief Makore, are baying for the Councillor’s blood after he entered into a dubious agreement without applying due dilligence.
Tateguru is informed that between February 14 and March 3, 2022, Cllr Tangemhare with the assistance of some village heads collected a total amount of US$ 4 500 which they separately sent to someone by the name Boniface Zinja through a Mukuru money transfer agent.
Sources say Cllr Tangemhare was approached by a middle aged man who introduced himself as “Boniface Zinja” and claimed to be employed at World Vision.
The Zinja character told Cllr Tangemhare that World Vision has intentions to operate in the ward he represents.
Zinja said that the Programme was supposed to assist 500 pupils with school fees.
Each beneficiary was also promised US$500 to finance their projects.
Interested people were told to pay one US dollar each as registration fee and the CCC Councillor led the collection.
Cllr Tangemhare went on to sign a handwritten five year contract on a piece of paper torn from a diary and was told to speed up the process and send the money as soon as possible or else the Programme would be taken to another Ward.
Through a six member Committee the money was raised with four of them separately sending varying amounts to the said name.
Afterwards, efforts to contact Zinja proved futile as he became unreachable most of the time.
The period which they had been promised for the coming of aid had also lapsed.
Chief Makore has scheduled a meeting with the community under his purview for this coming Saturday, from which a way forward is to be charted.
The issue is now with ZRP and OPC .
World Vision has denied having operations in Gutu, with the DDC’s office also distancing themselves.
It is believed that this could be the end of Tangemhare’s road as Councillor in the area which the ruling ZANU PF has targets to reclaim in 2023.
There is sentiment in the community that Cllr Tangemhare could have been working in cahoots with the scammer.
Recent Comments