Mutara was suspended last week on Friday by recently
appointed acting Town Clerk, Engineer Tinashe Mutetwa, pending the finalisation
of corruption cases he is facing at the criminal courts.
When he was arrested by investigators from the Zimbabwe
Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) last month, Mutara requested to be granted
special compassionate leave, but the local authority shot down the request,
saying he was facing criminal charges that do not qualify him to be granted
such vacation.
In a letter dated September 24, 2021, written by Acting
Town Clerk, Engineer Mutetwa — a copy of which this paper has in possession —
the local authority said the suspension was with full pay and benefits.
“I refer to your employment with City of Mutare as Director
of Health Services. I recall that on September 10, 2021, at its special council
meeting, the City of Mutare resolved, among other things, that it rescinds its
resolution made at its special meeting held on January 22, 2021 to appoint you
to act as the Town Clerk until the substantive Town Clerk is recruited.
“Your suspension is a result of the following events; your
arrest, detention and subsequent release on bail pending trial on charges of
criminal abuse of office; that though released, one of the bail conditions was
that you should not interfere with State witnesses and that you applied for and
was granted special leave citing incapacity to discharge your duties as the
acting Town Clerk.
“I am informed that your trial has not taken place (sic)
and was in fact postponed to October 6, 2021. I acknowledge receipt of your
letter of today (sic) applying for special leave effective from September 27,
2021 until your case is finalised. In other words, what you have applied for is
indefinite leave,” wrote Engineer Mutetwa.
However, investigations by The Manica Post revealed that
all has not been well at the local authority in recent weeks owing to
unwarranted expenses emanating from the ZITF jaunt.
In a heated argument on a WhatsApp group which was leaked
last week, a senior council official believed to be the financial director, Mr
Blessing Chafesuka, bitterly complained against the rationale of buying suits
for the ZITF entourage at a time the local authority was struggling to pay
employees’ salaries.
Although City of Mutare spokesperson, Mr Spren Mutiwi,
failed to respond to questions on the council’s ZITF expenditure as he
repeatedly promised to do so for close to two weeks, this newspaper understands
that all the remaining 12 councillors, five heads of departments and nine
supporting staffers attended this year’s annual exhibition.
Reads the leaked message: “It’s not rational in this
environment to buy suits for every attendant. If the request was solely for the
exhibiting team we could have funded. We can’t afford extravagance at this
moment in time.
“I am sorry. Surely, you want me, in my right senses, to
process half a million for one person to spend in a single week when I have
employees knocking at my door everyday demanding a wage increase from the
current $24 000 per month.
“Now, look at it, giving someone $25 000 for the whole
month and someone wants $500 000 for one week. I am not a politician, but if
you guys ask me to be one, I can be. I got all feedback on the lobbying that is
happening behind nicodemously, but when decisions are made, everyone has a
chance to put on the table their views. We are only surprised when some of us
here start side shows to lobby against a collective management position.
“Ngatisahwandirane, taurai nyaya dzenyu tiri mumeeting. Kwete
kuzoti FD tapedza meeting. It is not about FD. (let us not play hide and seek,
say your issues during meetings. Let us not blame the financial director after
the meeting).
“What is the use of being smartly dressed in Bulawayo when
our employees have several months’ salary arrears? Is this what other cities
are doing? Besides, show me one project that came out from ZITF exhibitions
ever since we started exhibiting. This is just one way of giving people
council-funded holiday time because nothing tangible is coming out of this. It
is just sheer waste of resources.”
Repeated efforts to get a comment from Mr Chafesuka were
fruitless as he was said to be in meetings.
However, during Wednesday’s full council meeting at the
Civic Centre, Mutare mayor — Councillor Blessing Tandi — came out guns blazing,
demanding a formal report from management over the issue.
Cllr Tandi accused the management of leaking confidential
information to the public. “I saw a report or a comment that circulated on the
social media stating that councillors demanded suits for the ZITF. I assume from
the reading that this message came from management.
“This is not the first time information has leaked from
this chamber to the streets. It happened again when we went to Masvingo for a
strategic workshop.
When we came back I requested for a report on how that
information leaked. I understand the majority of us signed the Secrecy Act.
“For the benefit of the Fourth Estate (media) here present,
if you may want to report on it, let it be clear that no councillor ever
requested for any clothing from council.
“My plea to my fellow councillors and administrators here
is that we need a report on that. We need to know who wrote that, whythey wrote
it and to whom were they writing,” fumed the mayor.
Councillor Tandi admitted that there was “a lot of rot”
within the local authority.
“I have realised that there is no problem out there, but
right here. There is lot of rot that is happening in this chamber,” thundered
Cllr Tandi. Manica Post
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