Bulawayo Town Clerk not off the hook yet

It is now clear that tribal battles at Bulawayo now over shadows service delivery.The city is facing serious water shortages,have poor roads, busting of sewer pipes posing a health hazard especially in areas like Emakhandeni,Cowdray Park and other Western suburbs of the city but people are no longer looking into that but they are now concentrating on whether Bulawayo councillors are Shona or Ndebele, whether the Town Clerk is Shona or Ndebele.

The Town Clerk was recently suspended by the Deputy Mayor, yes he was legally suspended in terms of the Urban Councils Act Section 139 together with Section 52 of the same act which gives the Acting Mayor the same powers as those of the Mayor in his absence.

I read many articles online saying the Deputy Mayor does not have the powers to suspend the Town Clerk,and those articles were authored by well known lawyers and you wonder if the lawyers are standing for the truth or they are prepared to distort facts to support a tribal agenda.

It is a fact that the Town Clerk is legally on suspension.Yes I am aware that the Mayor is alleged to have written a letter reversing the suspension,however, wonder which section of the law the Mayor used to reverse the suspension issued by the Deputy Mayor.The Mayor did not cite any law or regulation which he relied upon to reverse the suspension issued by the Deputy Mayor.It is not clear also how the Mayor wrote a reversal of the Town Clerk's suspension while he is on leave.Does the Mayor has an interest in the case? Well this will need a research to reach a fair conclusion.

However it must be noted that ,even though the Mayor has reversed the suspension of the Town Clerk, the misconduct charge is still there.The Town Clerk was ordered to respond to the allegations with seven (7) days, which means he is not yet off the hock yet.What the Mayor did is to assisted the Town Clerk to continue coming to work and earn his salary while disciplinary processes are on course.

I advise the Town Clerk and his supporters to postpone their celebrations to a latter date.The town clerk must prove (1) how he wrote a mining offer letter to himself (2) why the city has a serious water problem in recent days yet he is the supervisor of all city departments- is he competent for the job or not.(3) why is he failing to implement council resolutions (4) He must prove if he is not corrupt  in terms of the fund he is alleged to have squandered.These are stubborn facts which cannot be swept under the carpet.

We must also not ignore the  fact that the whole Deputy Mayor,Mayor and Town Clerk issue clearly shows us that there are problems within the Bulawayo MDC party.Its clear that the Mayor is coming from one faction of the MDC while the Deputy Mayor is from a different faction.The MDC is urged to put its house inorder to save the city of Bulawayo.

Lastly, the disruption of council operations by unruly Bulawayo gangs must not be condoned.Criminals who beat Bulawayo councillors yesterday must be arrested.Criminals who use facebooks and whatsapp to incite violence against Bulawayo councillors must be arrested.I thank you.

Etiwel Mutero
etiwelm02@gmail.com
+264817871070