City Council splashes US$2 million on luxury vehicles

Despite all the potholes on the city roads, the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) management has seen it fit to splash more than US$2 million on luxury vehicles for its directors.

This was despite a full council meeting having set aside the resolution to issue directors and other senior staff with loans to buy cars. The reason that councillors gave for deferring the resolution was that the local authority did not have enough money to support the project. However, in a shocking turn of events, council management has gone ahead and has started buying the cars.

According to council procedure, policy matters have to be approved by councillors before they are implemented. Two of the new vehicles, a Toyota Fortuner for the finance director Mr Kimpton Ndimande and a Toyota Prado for the director of housing and community services, Mr Isaiah Magagula, have already been delivered. In an interview yesterday, Bulawayo's Mayor, Clr Thaba Moyo, expressed surprise that the vehicles have been bought.

"I am out of town, but are you sure they have bought the cars? We set aside the motion to buy the cars at a full council meeting because the council has no money. I do not know how they could have been bought, I would need to be updated when I come back," said Clr Moyo.

Council employees who spoke to Chronicle yesterday accused the local authority's top brass of being double faced.

"We are always being told there is no money for salaries.

"We got April and May salaries this month and we have been told that the June salary will be paid in July. Where has the money to buy these expensive cars come from, then? Our bosses are only thinking of themselves," said a worker who declined to be named.

Another worker said council was missing the point by trying to keep a few people with high positions happy at the expense of hundreds of others. "They may be our bosses but we do all the hard work. If they do not keep us happy as well by paying our salaries on time, the whole city can come to a standstill if we go on industrial action," said the worker.

Contacted for comment, a council official defended the huge expense saying the purchase of the cars was set in a "long-standing council resolution".

"A resolution that has always been there authorises council to avail loans to employees who need to be mobile to perform their duties, to buy cars.

"They are not supposed to use council pool vehicles because these are for service delivery. However, the loans were last given in 1996 because of shortage of funds," said the official.

The official said the "limited loan entitlement" was based on an employee's level of responsibility, and those with more responsibility were entitled to more.

"The employees choose the kind of vehicle that they want, based on the level of the loan. They have to repay the loan and they are responsible for servicing the cars. The employee becomes the owner of the vehicle," said the official.

The official said the employees were then expected to use the cars to attend all council functions.

"More cars for other directors and critical staff are coming, subject to availability of funds," said the official. Besides facing challenges in paying salaries, the city council has a growing Zesa debt that it has been failing to pay since January. The local authority's main centres of operation, the Tower Block and the City Hall, have been without electricity since the beginning of the year.

This was after Zesa disconnected supplies because of a US$9,2 million debt. The debt is now more than US$10 million