Dismissed council employees appeal

All the dismissed workers were leaders of different council labour unions and residents association.
One of the fired employees, who alleged that their dismissal was politically motivated, said they have since  approached the MDC-T provincial leadership to have them reinstated.
“There is factionalism at the MDC-T-run Gweru City Council and all of us who were fired belonged to a rival faction. We were fired because we sympathised with the (Sessel) Zvidzayi faction which is opposed to a faction that used to be led by the late Mr Patrick Kombayi but is now headed by Gweru Mayor, Clr Tedius Chimombe,” said one of the former employees who requested anonymity.

Mr Zvidzayi is the Deputy Minister of Local  Government, Rural and Urban Development and a former mayor of Gweru.
The dismissed employees said they have since approached MDC-T Midlands South chairperson, Mrs Lillian Acropol, to have their case heard.
“The MDC-T provincial leadership has since met the city council management including the mayor seeking recourse and we are still waiting for some feed back,” said one of the dismissed employees.

The fired employees said the majority of councillors  who were opposed to Mr Zvidzayi’s faction had a hand in their dismissal.
“We are very disturbed because this was a matter which was supposed to be solved in a professional manner. The council management was, however, influenced to fire us by some councillors who were bent on pushing their political agenda,” he said.

Gweru Mayor Clr Chimombe dismissed the allegations that there was politics involved in the case of the five dismissed workers.
“There was no politics in the manner the five were   dismissed. They were found guilty on two counts, that of influencing other employees to partake in an illegal   strike and that of an unbecoming conduct when they were on strike. Besides, councillors have no say in the way  management conduct employees’ disciplinary hearings,” he said.

Mrs Acropol could neither deny nor confirm that she was approached by the dismissed employees when she was contacted for a comment yesterday.
“At the moment I cannot respond to your questions because I am about to get into a meeting.
“You can, however, put your questions in writing and e-mail them to me,” said Mrs Acropol, who said she was in Harare on party business.

Mr Zvidzayi was quoted recently in the media   condemning the dismissal of the five employees by the Gweru council.
He said it was disturbing that the council fired the employees for “expressing” their grievances.