BCC director in trouble
THE Bulawayo City Council has reportedly summoned one of its senior directors to appear before a disciplinary hearing, a move sources claimed was an attempt to save face ahead of the release of results of a Government stipulated corruption investigation on the local authority.
The director of engineering services Engineer Simela Dube was initially meant to appear before council’s General Purposes Committee meeting a couple of weeks ago but the hearing was cancelled with council management notifying councillors that they intended to alter the charge to a more incriminating one.
Contacted for comment the council’s spokesperson, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu could neither confirm nor deny the latest developments saying it was a “staff matter”.
“We have no comment as this is a staff matter,” said Mrs Mpofu.
Questioned on whether this could be council’s efforts to save face ahead of the release of results of the Government investigation, Mrs Mpofu said: “The City of Bulawayo is still awaiting the outcome of the investigation’s report and therefore would not cover up anything at this stage.”
Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Ministry Permanent Secretary Engineer George Mlilo is on record saying that heads would roll within the local authority as the investigation had unearthed “serious misconducts by senior council officials”.
In the latest development council sources revealed that Eng Dube was in the eye of a storm after council officials were allegedly left with egg on face after the Government investigation team unearthed a scam where a council tractor was being repaired at a local company by council employees despite the holdings company having been awarded the tender to repair the tractor.
It has since emerged that the awarding of the tender to the company was irregular as the company had not won the tender hence Eng Dube is now being accused of abuse of office, an offence which attracts immediate dismissal from the local authority if found guilty.
“It was an embarrassing scenario for senior management as a council worker was caught red-handed trying to change the number plate of a council tractor, which as far as we were concerned was at the landfill site. Internal investigations then singled out Eng Dube as the main culprit hence the disciplinary hearing.
“During the full council meeting, councillors were informed of the disciplinary proceedings, which were meant to take place on 20 July but the hearing was cancelled a day before with councillors being informed that the charge was now being altered as it had been discovered that Khanyisile was not supposed to be awarded the tender in the first place,” said the source.
The source further revealed that Eng Dube had initially offered to resign when the matter came up, a move that was rejected by the local authority.
“Council is avoiding a scenario where it appears to be a cover up hence they want it to seem they are doing something to weed out corruption worse with the Government breathing down their neck. An abrupt resignation will thus be viewed as a cover up hence the decision to go ahead with the disciplinary proceedings,” said the source.
The Government has already hinted that there were a lot of irregularities that were contained in the report that will be released soon. —