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Gokwe Town Council suspends Nyandoro again

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GOKWE Town Council has suspended its chief administrator Alexander Nyandoro again

GOKWE Town Council has suspended its chief administrator Alexander Nyandoro  again, hardly a day after the local authority lifted his suspension and dropped the “dishonesty” charges levelled against him.

REPORT BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

The move to resuspend Nyandoro was now viewed as a “deliberate and orchestrated campaign” by few individuals to frustrate him, as the decision was never made by full council.

Acting town secretary Clemence Madondo last Monday wrote to Nyandoro advising him that the local authority had decided to lift the suspension imposed on him on December 6 last year.

“Council will pay you all your outstanding dues from the time of suspension to date. The amount due and payable to you is in the gross sum of $2 040 and will be paid in by end of March,” Madondo wrote in his March 18 letter.

The letter came a week after council lawyers Masawi and Partners had written Chitere, Chidawanyika and Partners representing Nyandoro saying: “We write to advise you that our client (council) has decided to lift the suspension on the above matter and abandoned the charges thereof. Our client (council) shall pay the benefits that are due and payable to your client (Nyandoro) from the date of suspension to date.”

But when Nyandoro returned to work the following day, last Tuesday, Madondo however, resuspended him on the same allegations. In the March 19 letter, Madondo, wrote: “The above subject refers wherein we write to advise you that you are being suspended from employment with effect from today (March 19 2013).

“We further advise you that in the period of your suspension you shall be required to stay from council offices (sic) and avoid interfering with employees on council business.

“Allowances payable to you during the period of your suspension shall be$797,50.

“You are being charged with contravention of Section 140(1)(b) of the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29:15) when you acted in dishonest and negligent performance (sic) of your duty.”

However, Nyandoro’s lawyer Tonderai Chitere lashed at Madondo for reportedly side-stepping his mandate as the council had been represented by a lawyer in the matter.

“It boggles the mind why you have decided not to communicate this resuspension through your lawyers as the normal procedure.

“Your lawyers have not indicated to us that they have renounced agency in this matter and as such, we still await communication of the resuspension from your lawyers, otherwise this means that our client has not been resuspended,” Chitere said.

“To make matters worse your letter of resuspension does not state the reasons why you have decided to resuspend our client after indicating that you were abandoning the charges thereof.”

A councillor who refused to be named told NewsDay that council was never advised of the resuspension, which could have been approved by acting council chairperson Vengesayi Chipfuko.

Repeated attempts for Chipfuko’s comment failed as his mobile phone went unanswered.