Mutare City Council’s approval of a non-capital expenditure of over US$300 000 on top-of-the-range vehicles for departmental heads has drawn the ire of residents and ratepayers who view this as a wrong prioritization by the city fathers.
Mayor, councilor Blessing Tandi, discredited for ditching the MDC Alliance, has however sought to justify the profligate spending, as part of a targeted incentive model to boost morale in its critical labor force.
Cllr Tandi said Mutare City Council is one of the employers among local authorities in the country with pecks for top management as a strategy to attract competent human resources to drive the strategic development of the city.
In the latest development directors in the engineering and finance departments will get top-of-the-range vehicles, with Tandi confirming that the vehicles have already been processed under a recapitalisation project to procure crticvial service delivery machinery and equipment.
Tandi said Mutare City has budgeted at least US$2 million in its recapitalization project.
“We are not only looking on our managers but we are also recapitalization the city, we have budgeted at least US$2 million, a grader is coming, we tendered for browser, we tendered for refuse compactors and other equipment is coming,” he said.
Council has also purchased a Toyota Fortuner and a Toyota Hilux for health director Antony Mutara and Housing director Emma Mantiziba, respectively and now the local municipality has a budget of at least US$320 000 to purchase the vehicle for its four directors.
“I don’t stand by what people are saying, I understand that some people will not be happy seeing us buying vehicles, we are buying vehicles for our directors and they have started coming as we speak right now, we want to incentivize our workers, we need to keep them happy so that they can do their work and focus on service delivery issues,” he said.
“We are ranging from Fortuners and GD6 Toyota Hilux and we have so far purchased two vehicles for the housing director and health director, they now have their vehicles respectively, we want to lure the best services and talent in the country,” he said.
“We also want to buy cars for the director’s deputies and the planners but for the start, we said the directors should get their vehicles first, they are very critical in providing services to our city,” he added.
“Mutare City is one of the best paying local municipalities in the country, if you want to compare you can do that and you can see that people are working very hard,” he said.
Tandi also said they are missing the services of former Mutare Town Clerk Joshua Maligwa who succumbed to Covid 19 early this year, Health director Dr Mutara is currently the acting Mutare City Council Town Clerk.
Across all departments, the council needs vehicles, in particular for the health department, where deficiency stands at above 60% as the council currently runs a fleet of only three ambulances.
Deputy Mayor, councilor Farai Bhiza also revealed that the city is operating with one fire tender and a single ambulance covering a population of approximately 260 000, according to the 2012 census.
