Ex-Chitungwiza mayor clings to office keys

Fired Chitungwiza mayor Councillor Phillip Mutoti is holding on to keys to his former office that are required by the caretaker commission for use by external auditors.

Cllr Mutoti wants to first be reinstated as mayor, as his condition to release the keys. He took the keys home soon after suspension of the full Chitungwiza council last month.

When the commission demanded the keys, Cllr Mutoti refused with them claiming he was still in charge. Caretaker commission chairman Mr Madzudzo Pawadyira said the keys were required because the office should accommodate external auditors on duty at the local authority.

"We do not have enough rooms here. "We are operating in this classroom when we should be using that room (mayor's office) for our business," he said.

"Now, I have got an additional demand for external auditors who have come here. "I want to let them into that office which was occupied by Mr Mutoti."

Mr Pawadyira said it was in the interest of Cllr Mutoti to return the keys. "I thought it would be in his interest to return the keys. "I have since written him a letter because he is not responding to phone calls," he said.

"Someone purporting to be his lawyer said he would not cooperate and that boggles the mind. "I think in the first place those keys should have been taken from him."

Mr Pawadyira said if Cllr Mutoti continued to be obstructive they would bring in a locksmith to change locks. Contacted for comment, Cllr Mutoti refuted Mr Pawadyira's claims that he was holding on to the keys.

"I never received any letter or signed any document as you are saying. "No one called me. "Go and ask those people who have told you that I have refused with the keys," he said.