Gweru mayor under fire

THE cash-strapped Gweru City Council (GCC) has come under fire over top of the range cars that the local authority recently purchased for its top brass while workers are not paid and service delivery is poor.

According to reliable reports GCC mayor Hamutendi Kombayi authorized the local authority to splash $500,000 on vehicles alone.

This comes at a time when the local authority has been struggling to pay its workers citing financial constraints.

But during a volatile 2015 budget consultative meeting at Gweru which pitted residents, the mayor and his top management, Kombayi defended the move saying it was a done deal which was done procedural and could not be reversed.

"I understand many are demanding answers on the issue of luxury cars that management recently purchased. We can't keep living in the past.

"There is nothing that can be done to reverse the situation, what's done is done. Besides, management needed those cars and we bought them. I therefore suggest we focus on the path ahead rather than keep on accusing each other. That is the only way we can progress as a city," Kombayi was quoted by a daily paper today.

The council management allegedly dished out $30,000 car loans to eight assistant directors and forked out $276, 000 for three vehicles, a Jeep Cherokee for the Town Clerk, Daniel Matawu and two Toyota D4D V6s for directors of finance and engineering Edgar Mwedzi and Engineer Praymore Mhlanga.