Vehicles wasting away

Masvingo Bureau
About 43 Masvingo City Council vehicles, including the mayoral Mercedes Benz, are wasting away at the Messenger of Court premises as the long standing US$3,5 million salaries dispute between employees and council rages on.The entire vehicle fleet was attached by the Messenger of Court in December last year and most of the vehicles now have deflated tyres and malfunctioning batteries after spending almost 10 months parked pending the court’s determination in the salaries’ saga.

The vehicles include road making equipment like tippers, front-end loaders and bulldozers whose condition continue to deteriorate by each passing day. There are fears that the vehicles which initially had an estimated value of nearly US$500 000 might continue to depreciate due to the continued parking and lack of regular attention.

Masvingo town clerk Mr Adolph Gusha yesterday confirmed that the condition of the city’s attached vehicles was fast deteriorating saying it would be expensive to repair them. “It is true that our vehicles that were attached by the Messenger of Court are deteriorating owing to lack of regular attention and it would be expensive to put them back on the roads again,” he said.