Faber Chidarikire

Career

Chidarikire was ceremonial mayor of Chinhoyi between 1991 and 1995. Thereafter he served as executive mayor of Chinhoyi between 1995 to 1999.^[3] On 31 March 2005, Faber Chidarikire was elected a member of Parliament for Chinhoyi and served as the chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee on justice, legal and parliamentary affairs.^[4][5]

In December 2014, Chidarikire was criticised by State-owned media for referring to Acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s wife Auxillia as the Acting First Lady during a party thrown by Prisca Mupfumira in Chinhoyi to celebrate her elevation to the Zanu-PF Politburo and her appointment as Public Service, Labour and Social Services Minister. The Herald quoted analysts who said Chidarikire's remarks bordered on corruption that came with over extending loyalty to an individual for future benefits.^[6]

Controversies

Meat Fight

On 18 April 2005, during the Independence Day celebrations in Chinhoyi, Faber Chidarikire allegedly hit a councillor on the jaw and then kicked him because he was taking meat that he had not been given. The councillor, named Muriravanhu from ward 6, publicly threatened to report the incident to the police, and Chidarikire is said to have given him money to keep quiet.^[7]

Murder Charge

In March 2001, the High Court charged Chidarikire with the 1994 murder of a man whose decapitated head was found in his car.

Faber Chidarikire denied the charge, saying the allegation had been made by his political opponents. Chidarikire had told police in 1994 that the head belonged to a pedestrian he had knocked down in an accident.

The head was exhumed and pathologists concluded that it had been deliberately sliced from the body.^[8]

In 1999 Chidarikire was charged with the murder of a 12-year-old girl in 1987. He was charged with murdering the girl in 1987, but he was released on bail after intervention by the Attorney General; there were reports that Chidarikire cut off the girl's ear and excised her genitals.^[9]

Request For Severance Package

In 2021, Faber Chidarikire wrote a letter to a cash-strapped Chinhoyi Municipality demanding for the local council to award him a golden handshake including a house, vehicle and three property stands, and a waiver not to pay council rates.

Part of his letter read:

"I am Honourable Faber Chidarikire. I am requesting council to consider payment of benefits that were or are associated with the office of mayor, as you may recall l was ceremonial mayor of Chinhoyi between 1991 and 1995.

Thereafter, l served as executive mayor of Chinhoyi between 1995 to 1999. I did not receive any benefits at the expiry of my term.

I am advised that my colleagues who held the same position were given the following benefits, namely; a residential stand, commercial stand, industrial stand, given council accommodation they were occupying. At the material time, l was residing in my own house.

Exemption from paying rates and other bills, and a council vehicle. I, therefore, request that council considers payment of and award of above-mentioned benefits for my term as mayor of Chinhoyi."

During a full council meeting on 16 September 2021, town clerk Maxwell Kaitano advised councillors the onus, either to grant or deny Chidarikire the gratuity, lay with the Local Government Minister July Moyo. Zanu PF Ward 15 councillor, Innocent Mangwanya moved a motion to have the matter escalated to the parent ministry.

Following Mangwanya’s proposal, the councillors resolved to push for payment of Chidarikire’s golden handshake.^[3]

References