BULAWAYO council has resolved to pay off councillors’ outstanding home telephone bills, some dating back as far as 2009, after TelOne slashed the bills by 40%, a recent report of the council’s general purposes committee reveals.
By NQOBANI NDLOVU
Councillors Collet Ndhlovu and Monica Lubimbi initially owed $2 582,74 and $8 220,37, respectively, which were later reduced to $1 811,92 and $3 598,56, respectively.
The report, dated April 4, read: “According to information availed by TelOne, although councillor Lubimbi’s phone service was connected in 2002, the debt was accumulated between January 2009 after dollarisation and the time the account was terminated in June 2012, a period of 42 months.
“Councillor Ndhlovu’s was connected in August 2009 and terminated in November 2012, a period of 40 months,” reads in part a letter to town clerk, Christopher Dube requesting that council clears the telephone bills.
Dube confirmed yesterday that council will settle the councillors’ outstanding bills.
“I have been seized with that matter for the past six months. The two were using their personal telephones and not using council facilities like others. We tried to look for an itemised billing from TelOne to check whether those calls had anything to do with council business without success, I then made a decision, as management, that we settle the bills,” he said.
