The Zvishavane Town Council (ZTC) is under fire for keeping three directors who were convicted of corruption on its payroll for the past two years.
Full-time directors at the council earn between US$1,000 and US$1,250 a month. Over three years, this means the trio could cost the cash-strapped local authority around US$108,000 — even as they serve time behind bars.
The three, Town Secretary Tinoda Mukutu (55), Health, Housing and Community Services Director Nhlanhla Ngwenya (46), and Town Engineer Dominic Mapwashike (46), were found guilty of breaching tender procedures.
They were convicted for awarding the same contract twice to JM Construction, despite the company failing to meet the terms of the first deal. The second contract was dished out without council approval.
The council had partnered with JM Construction to service 27 extension stands in Zvishavane’s CBD, in a deal worth over US$2.7 million, signed on 23 May 2016.
But JM Construction failed to complete the work within the agreed two-year period, and the contract was cancelled in October 2018.
Despite this, on 17 December 2019, the same council bosses quietly gave the company another go at the job without going back to tender, in breach of procedure.
That move eventually led to their arrest by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC).
Due to the council’s failure to officially dismiss them, Zvishavane currently has only one active full-time director — the Finance Director.
Council chairperson Takarangana Keta confirmed to The Masvingo Mirror that the three have not been fired but are currently on forced leave. He said there is a council resolution in place enforcing a no-work, no-pay policy.
Keta added that disciplinary hearings for the three are set to begin this week. He added that the process had been delayed because the officials were appealing their conviction and sentence at the High Court and the Supreme Court.
However, a labour expert who spoke to the publication on condition of anonymity dismissed the council’s explanation, saying the “no work, no pay” policy doesn’t apply in this situation — and unless their contracts are terminated, the trio must continue to receive full salaries. Said the labour expert:
The correct position of the law is that a criminal conviction doesn’t substitute that a worker undergoes a work disciplinary inquiry that should establish its own verdict.
If no hearing has been done that means that the convicted individuals are still council employees who are entitled to their salaries.
More: Masvingo Mirror
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