Gwanda mayor, Lionel DeNecker, on Sunday said he will hand over himself to police when he returns from a business trip on Monday following reports cops had visited his offices twice since last week.
He said police visited his office on two occasions last week with the latest incident being last Friday.
“I received a phone call on Friday from my office with my secretary informing me that more than 15 policemen in uniform came to my office looking for me. At that time I was in Harare. I was also told that they asked for my residential address and they proceeded to my house,” he said.
“I received yet another phone call from my neighbours who said they were surprised to see such a large group of policemen standing by my yard”.
The mayor raised the ire of the police last week when he told NewsDay police were confiscating wares from street vendors who had valid vending licenses.
“I have committed no crime. I have done no wrong. I have only expressed what the vendors said in a meeting that we held with them. We even invited the police to the meeting but they did not come”. He said the police should in fact “leave the vendors alone”.
“These are people who want to earn an honest living as there are no jobs at the moment. The little money that they pay as licence fees helps council in service delivery”.
Matabeleland South police spokesperson, Tafanana Dzirutwe said: “It is not proper for us to comment about the mayor and police going about their duties. If he had been arrested then we would comment”.
