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Lovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
SUSPENDED Gweru mayor, Councillor Hamutendi Kombayi, is refusing to surrender a council vehicle, the mayoral chain and gown which he was given during his tenure. Clr Kombayi was recently suspended together with his deputy, Clr Artwell Matyorauta and 14 other councillors in the MDC-T dominated council by Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere for “gross misconduct, gross management, incompetence in connection with handling council funds and running its affairs.”
Cde Kasukuwere has since appointed a three member commission chaired by former Masvingo town clerk, Tsungai Mhangami, to run the affairs of the city.
Chomunorwa Parenyi and Mark Choga are the other commissioners.
The suspended mayor has reportedly held on to the mayoral vehicle, a Mazda BT50 all-terrain vehicle, on the basis that it forms part of his severance package.
Mhangami said he has since assigned town clerk, Daniel Matawu, to look into the issue.
“It’s true that the suspended mayor is holding on to council property which includes a mayoral gown, mayoral chain and the mayoress chain. We’ve left that to the town clerk to deal with the issue because he is the one better placed to address the matter as it’s within his jurisdiction.
“In the first place those things should have been kept at council and not at someone’s private property. As commissioners we would not want to delve on those issues, rather we want to focus on service delivery so that we can turn around the fortunes of the city,” he said.
Efforts to get comment from Clr Kombayi were fruitless as he was not picking up his mobile phone.
Meanwhile, Mhangami has said council’s Revenue Enhancement Taskforce, a committee comprising members of the management and the workers committee will remain in place until an effective revenue collection strategy is in place.
He said: “At the moment that committee will continue. We’re still settling down and therefore we’re still to determine the timeframe on which the (revenue enhancement) committee will hand over whatever they’re doing to the rightful people.
“We’re plotting ways of raising revenue and once we come up with a turnaround strategy, we’ll disband the committee.”
Online Reporter