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Herald Reporter
Secretary for Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Mr Killian Mpingo risks being charged with contempt of Parliament for failing to attend a hearing where he was supposed to brief legislators on pertinent issues falling under his brief.
Mr Mpingo failed to appear before the Senate Thematic Committee on Peace and Security today and instead sent Civil Protection Unit Director, Mr Madzudzo Pawadyira, thereby angering committee members.
Committee chairperson Senator Damien Mumvuri (Zanu-PF) sent Mr Pawadzyira back, saying they wanted an accounting officer.
“We might take this as a contempt of Parliament because we had specifically written to him. The issues we raised fall within his purview.
Mr Pawadyira was unable to respond to some of the issues when we invited him two weeks ago hence the decision to invite the accounting officer,” said Sen Mumvuri.
Issues the committee wanted Mr Mpingo to answer included the Harare City Council senior managers salary saga and the situation at Tokwe-Mukosi Dam where thousands of people were displaced by floods.
Council managers are awarding themselves hefty salaries while service delivery deteriorates.
The committee also wanted to be briefed on how Government was dealing with families from the Tokwe-Mukosi area who received compensation for relocation to pave way for construction of the dam, but did not do so until they were forced to by flooding.
“It is quite a sizeable number of families who received compensation but did not leave, so we wanted an explanation on all these issues,” said Sen Mumvuri.
Mr Pawadyira said Mr Mpingo was attending another meeting.
Online Reporter