Three BCC top officials face the boot

Bulawayo City Council  town clerk Middleton Nyoni, director of  housing Isaiah Magagula and finance director Kempton Ndimande have come under attack from councillors are for poor service delivery and failure to handle the local authority's debt of more than $56 million.

A confidential council report compiled in April indicates that the three failed to explain why the council was reeling under so much debt.

Council took bank loans for financial working capital and purchase of top-of-the-range vehicles for senior managers, but councillors have charged that the local authority was losing thousands of dollars through corruption in the financial and housing departments.

It was also losing money through properties that are not on the council records being leased by corrupt officials. "Council did not follow-up the request for a comprehensive report of council properties...Council is under-collecting monthly revenue due to incompetence and as such, dead wood must be removed from the system."

It was revealed that council was hiring new staff despite of resolution to suspend recruitment in a bid to contain the already huge wage bill.

Ndimande presented a report detailing how council was intensifying water disconnections to recover money owed to it by residents. As a result of these disconnections, about US$2,1 million was being collected a week, but it's still below council's target of US$6 million.