ACTING Mutare mayor George Jerison says he will court Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo to order the local authority to re-engage the 450 contract workers fired last month.
Report by Obey Manayiti
In an interview with NewsDay yesterday, Jerison said the former contract workers worked hard to keep the city clean and earned the local authority several accolades.
Mutare City Council scooped the Best Performing Urban Local Authority in Waste Management award at the just-ended edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo.
The city was also voted runner-up urban local authority in community services.
“I want to congratulate Mutare for winning these awards. Every year we are voted the cleanest city, but the unfortunate part is that the majority of our workers who used to wake up at 4am to clean the city up to 6pm are no longer there,” Jerison said.
“I will be meeting the minister (Chombo) on Wednesday before the Local Governance Conference together with the town clerk to discuss the plight of the dismissed workers. I hope the meeting will yield something positive.”
President Robert Mugabe is expected to officially open the conference.
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The council laid off the contract workers after failing to pay them.
…as Dinha raps Guruve Council
MASHONALAND Central Governor and Resident Minister Martin Dinha has rapped Guruve Rural District Council for underutilising the eight citrus plantations it inherited during the land reform programme, saying his provincial lands committee had resolved to repossess seven of the plantations and redistribute them among resettled farmers.
“As the provincial lands committee we have resolved that Guruve Council gives up seven of the eight citrus plantations to the resettled farmers. We have left the local authority with one plantation adjacent to town for town expansion,” Dinha told NewsDay last week.
He said more than 1 500 resettled farmers had taken up plots in the plantations where most of the trees have dried up due to neglect.
