Masvingo
Plunges From Grace
Feature
Adrian Shuro, MASVINGO
F
rom being voted the best city in
the country, the cleanest and a
provider of the safest drinking
water….to making headlines for
the wrong reasons!
That is the sad tale of Masvingo,
Zimbabwe’s first urban settlement which
is now saddled with a $3,5 million salary
debt owed to workers, whose labour
dispute is in its fourth year in the courts.
Most of the local authority’s utility
vehicles which include fire tenders,
ambulances and garbage trucks have
been, as a result, attached by the Deputy
Sheriff.
The development first followed a
Labour Court, and then a High Court
ruling which was in the workers’ favour
.The dispute dates back to 2008 when
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council executives awarded themselves
salary hikes which did not cascade down
to the shopfloor employees.
Even the Mayoral Mercedes Benz
has not been spared, and other vehicles
attached this year as the row intensified
were a Commuter Omnibus, Pajero, Mazda
Eagle Twin Cab, several Nissan HardBody
and Mazda pick-up trucks, graders, frontend loaders, tippers, concrete mixers and
UD Tippers.
All the property is still at the Deputy
Sheriff’s premises here in Masvingo
awaiting the hammer, but the local
authority has successfully appealed
against the execution order, leaving the
Labour Court to rescind its warrant of
execution order.
Meanwhile, the dispute has severely
disrupted service delivery in a city that
once boasted of being the cleanest, with
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garbage currently going uncollected for
months and grass remaining uncut since
the beginning of the rainy season.
Litter is strewn everywhere, while
the water supply has been pathetic to
an extend of Municipality resorting to
rationing even though the supply dam is
filled to capacity. And if it is available,
tap water comes with dirty particles
that leave residents wondering what has
really gone wrong with all the glamour of
old.
Even Masvingo City Council Mayor,
Alderman Femius Chakabuda, has
admitted things are falling apart at Town
House.
“The situation is bad. The Deputy
Sheriff took everything with him, and
that even includes printers in the offices
and bottles at our council bar. All our
service vehicles are gone, but the fact
April 2013