Hurungwe RDC CEO Jailed 34 Years for Fraud

Hurungwe Rural District Council (RDC) Chief Executive Officer, Luke Kalavina, has been sentenced to 34 years in prison by the High Court after being convicted on three counts of fraud, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has confirmed.

In a statement released on Friday, ZACC said Kalavina was found guilty of defrauding the local authority of public funds earmarked for essential infrastructure development, including a bridge construction project and the upgrading of a clinic in Karoi.

“Kalavina diverted substantial amounts of money for personal use, severely compromising public service delivery in the district,” said the anti-corruption body.

His conviction follows months of investigation into misuse of council funds that were supposed to benefit local communities under Hurungwe RDC.

The High Court ruling comes in the wake of another high-profile corruption case involving three other Hurungwe RDC officials Council Engineer Romeo Mupamaonde, his assistant Alfred Makama, and contractor Batsirayi Nyamayaro who were recently sentenced to 15 years each for fraud.

The trio was found guilty of misappropriating more than US$18,000 meant for the construction of a bridge.

The sentencing of Kalavina and his co-accused marks one of the toughest penalties handed down to local government officials in recent years, as authorities intensify efforts to clamp down on corruption in public institutions.

ZACC said it will continue to investigate and bring to justice individuals involved in the abuse of public funds, warning that corruption at local authority level threatens the delivery of basic services and infrastructure development.