Gapare, the councillor for Ward 8, was handed the suspension letter last week and has been advised not to set his foot at the Masvingo civic centre. Chombo in his letter alleged that Gapare had failed to work well with other MDC-T councillors, thereby compromising service delivery in the country’s oldest town.
The Mayor, Femias Chakabuda, confirmed the development but refused to shed more light on the issue. “For further details you can contact the minister himself,” he said.
Inside sources said Gapare was being punished for exposing shadowy deals within the council, some of which involved Chombo. He had queried why the council had awarded a road maintenance contract to a company called Tencraft, allegedly owned by Chombo, without going to tender, when the council had its own engineering department that was capable of doing the work.
He had also openly clashed with the mayor over the way in which he was handling tenders. A full council meeting was abandoned last week as councillors protested against Gapare’s presence in the chamber.
“We adjourned the meeting because all the councillors present were not happy with the councillor’s presence,” Chakabuda told The Zimbabwean.
The MDC-T has dispatched a three-member investigating team to probe all MDC-T dominated local authorities in Masvingo. Determined to clean up all corruption-riddled authorities ahead of the next elections, the team visited Gutu rural district council and Chiredzi district council last week before descending on Masvingo city over the weekend.
Post published in: News