LOCAL Government minister Ignatius Chombo has reportedly chickened out from sending a second board of inquiry to try suspended Gwanda mayor Lionel De Necker on December 19 after instructing him to attend the disciplinary hearing.
REPORT BY RICHARD MUPONDE SENIOR COURT REPORTER
The hearing was supposed to take place after an incident on December 13 in which a man who claimed to have been sent by Chombo delivered summons on De Necker at 10pm, for him to appear before the board.
This was despite a High Court order barring Chombo from conducting the hearing.
Following the incident, De Necker said he now feared for his life.
In an interview yesterday, De Necker confirmed that the board did not come from Harare to try him as scheduled.
“They were supposed to come and try me on December 19,” he said.
“However, they did not come on the day.
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“Definitely they chickened out.
“Even if they had come, I was not going to appear before that board because there is an order barring Chombo and that board from conducting a hearing until a pending matter in the High Court is finalised.”
Efforts to get a comment from Chombo were fruitless as his mobile phone went unanswered.
De Necker is under suspension for allegedly defying Chombo’s order to appoint a suspected Zanu PF sympathiser, Priscilla Nkala, as the town’s chamber secretary last year.
Chombo then ordered the MDC mayor to appear before a disciplinary committee.
But De Necker challenged the minister at the Bulawayo High Court where Justice Lawrence Kamocha stopped Chombo from conducting the hearing.
However, following the December 13 mysterious visit to his home by a stranger who claimed to be Chombo’s emissary, De Necker has expressed concerns about his safety.
The mayor said he believed the minister had sent the man to intimidate him.
In November, Justice Kamocha interdicted Chombo from convening De Necker’s hearing until the court had heard another case in which the mayor is challenging the validity of his suspension.
