Gokwe Town Clerk faces axe

Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
GOKWE Town councillors have resolved that beleaguered Town Clerk Melania Mandeya and Finance Director Joconia Nyoni be relieved of their duties, one year after their suspension.

Mandeya was suspended after she was arrested and subsequently appeared in court facing a raft of abuse of office allegations.

Council also accuses Mandeya, who holds a degree in Guidance and Counseling, of not being qualified for the job.

The local authority has also written to Government recommending the firing of Nyoni, who was also suspended together with Mandeya. Gokwe Council Chairperson, Councillor Never Gwanzura confirmed the development.

He said the recommendations followed thorough investigations and hearings.

“We have indeed recommended that the two officials be relieved of their duties after thorough investigations. We have since written to the parent ministry requiring that the two be fired. They failed to be custodians of the council as expected of them. They abused their positions, which did not go down well with us as council,” he said.

Cllr Gwanzura said council was making painful but necessary decisions.

“It is painful to get someone to lose their job. After thorough internal investigations, we were left with no option but to terminate their contracts,” said Cllr Gwanzura.

He said hearings into their cases opened a pandora’s box.

“We actually discovered a number of anomalies. Besides these few cases that are before the courts, they have a number of cases mainly of abuse of office hence the decision that we part ways,” he said.

Mandeya and Nyoni appeared before Gokwe magistrate Mr Hillary Ndlovu for allegedly defrauding their employer through flouting tender processes.

The court heard that the two allegedly prejudiced council of

thousands of dollars after conniving to flout tender processes in their favour.

Acting in connivance, Nyoni and Mandeya allegedly directly procured a 10KVA/10KWA solar power system from Nerenchia Power Rite Company on a fix and supply basis for Gokwe Town Council.

During the procurement procedure, the council was quoted US$14 792,50 by the said company.

Nyoni, however, allegedly went on to pay $325 435, using an unofficial foreign currency exchange rate, thereby favouring the said company and prejudicing council of large sums of money.

Had it been a competitive bidding method, the court heard, the local authority could have saved thousands of dollars.

Nyoni also allegedly paid for 24 by 330 watts solar panels but only 20 by 400 watts solar panels were installed at town house and the rest were unaccounted for.