By Correspondent
Three Harare City Council employees are facing dismissal after they were caught red handed by Harare Mayor, Herbert Gomba while using a service delivery vehicle for personal purposes.
Admire Nduna, Caston Makunde and Suware Bashiri were caught on Wednesday after working hours loading manure into a council truck along Glen Norah Park with the intention of re-selling it for personal gain.
According to a letter of complaint written by Ward 16 Councilor, Denford Ngadziore, Mayor Gomba, upon apprehending the alleged culprits, confiscated keys to the vehicle.
The letter of complaint was addressed to Town Clerk, Hosiah Chisango and copied the Directors of Works and Water and calls for punitive actions against the trio.
“The three knew that the vehicle was supposed to be left at Mabelreign council yard after work.
“However, it is alleged that they were caught loading manure for commercial purposes. The vehicle keys were confiscated by His Worship the Mayor and handed over to Municipal Police.
“The vehicle is currently impounded at Municipal police headquarters. Coincidentally, I received a report of a burst sewer pipe and the excuse that I was given was that the vehicle had no fuel and I got to know about this matter after receiving numerous calls from council workers who were seeking my intervention,” read the letter from Ngadziore.
He expressed dismay that council workers were sabotaging effective service delivery by using council vehicles for personal gains.
Ngadziore said punitive action must be taken against the perpetrators.
“Whenever we have an excuse affecting service delivery, that excuse must be genuine and must be clearly explained to residents. Therefore, I instruct you to follow up on the matter and proper processes should be followed so as to avoid abuse of council vehicles and fuel,” said Ngadziore.
Harare Mayor, Herbert Gomba, confirmed the incident adding that ‘such employees must go home’.
“Yes, the three were using a municipal vehicle to load manure and I am deeply concerned that some employees are using cars meant for service delivery to do personal businesses. In an environment where fuel is now expensive, we must deal with this as a council.
“In a hard way, such employees must go home to show that we mean business when we say lets transform the City of Harare,” said Gomba.
Service delivery has largely been poor in Harare with council citing fuel and vehicle shortages.
Source : http://harare.opencouncil.co.zw/2020/01/04/council-employees-caught-red-handed-by-mayor/?fbclid=IwAR2s1Nf3VZWn2AEbHq4N38XYFWTFeJgmld2yWoalR2By_07MhaOe4MFXTCw