Sesel Zvidzayi (MDC-T) has voiced his objection in a letter to Local Government Minister Ignatious Chombo. Councillors Warship Dumba and Casper Takura (MDC-T) were dismissed for allegedly defrauding the council out of US$600 on three occasions after claiming they were using their own vehicles to attend meetings out of Harare.
Zvidzai said Chombo’s decisions to fire the councillors were made without consulting him, as was required in the global political agreement. “I only learnt of this in the weekend paper,” he wrote. “If this represents an official ministry position then I should have been involved. If not, then the dismissals are null and void and the councillors should go back to work pending the constitution of an independent and impartial inquiry committee.”
Dumba and Takura were part of the eight-member team that investigated and exposed Chombo and Philip Chiyangwa’s alleged land theft in a damning 54-page report which was later used as evidence in a defamation trial. Chombo said a board of inquiry chaired by Andrew Makoni found the councillors guilty of misconduct. “The seriousness arises from the fact that, the councillors are custodians of public funds, from which public funds, they accessed money by fraudulent means,” Makoni said.
Post published in: News