CORRECT POSITION ON WAR VETERANS STORIES

 To our esteemed customers and stakeholders:

 This Notice is a response to a news article titled “Maligwa under siege” under the byline of Owen Mhandu which was circulated on social media. The article was published without input, comment or response whatsoever from Council despite that the issues raised were of public interest. To date Council has not understood the siege the article referred to. With such allegations, and as a local authority bound by principles of transparency and accountability it thus becomes imperative that Council gives its side of the story through this press release.

 The article referred to above is misleading, false, malicious and biased. The circumstances behind its creation point to a pursuance of an unknown agenda. First and foremost the Town Clerk Mr. Joshua Maligwa is guided by the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the Urban Councils Act [Chapter 29:15] in executing his mandate. The said legislative framework enjoin the Town Clerk, and any other Council employee, to be apolitical.

 The article gives a wrong impression that Council is not following properly laid down labour law and procedures and alleges that the local authority is depriving its former employees of their rights. Council is a creation of statute and is bound by such.

Below is the tabulated information on the former employees who had been camped at Civic Centre.

 Council Policy as read with the City’s Conditions of Service is clear that due to the nature of their work, employees in the Municipal Police and Fire Brigade Sections retire at 60 years of age.  The policy applies without exception to all employees in these two Sections.  It is malicious and falsehood to claim that the above cited ex-employees were retired because they are war veterans.  Non-war veteran employees within the Municipal Police and Fire Brigade sections who have reached the age of 60 have also gone on retirement in accordance with Council Policy.  Further to this, other war veterans who have not reached retirement age are still within Council employment, and are enjoying the fresh breath brought by the new administration.

 Council is an equal opportunity employer and we do not discriminate or favour anyone on the basis of his or her relation, status or position.

 It should be stated clearly that there are people who are driving their personal agenda by fabricating falsehoods in an attempt to tarnish the image of the Town Clerk and Council in general. That agenda setting is clearly manifesting in yet another misleading, totally unfounded piece entitled War Veterans are used Condoms allegedly by the Town Clerk.

 First and foremost the story lacks substance, balance, and credibility and relies on hearsay evidence.  The reporter pretended to have attempted to call the Town Clerk when in actual fact there was no such attempt, nor did he sought for alternative from Civic Centre and that alone displays the highest degree of miscarriage of journalism which should not go unchallenged in this 21^st century.

 The allegations levelled against The Town Clerk are baseless, fictitious, lacks merit, and are not even an aorta of truth, the entire story was fabricated and the reporter chose to rely on grape vine and hearsay.

 The Town Clerk is an employee of Council who is adhering and guided by the City of Mutare’s conditions of service, Council resolutions and government laws.

 Mr Maligwa has great respect for war veterans and will not at any point make such misplaced utterances.

 It should be put on record that those who are fighting the Town Clerk and Council is a protest to the measures which have been taken to plug loopholes of corruption, of plundering Council resources are fighting a losing battle.

 To illustrate the highest degree of recklessness and abuse of pen by the journalist, the ex- municipal police employees, David Sakarombe and Maxwell Nyamuranga had their contracts extended by the former Town Clerk way before Mr Maligwa joined City of Mutare.

 The other two former employees left the organization way back before Mr Maligwa joined City of Mutare. The reporter should be reminded of the key tenets of journalism, which are factual, balance and credible.

 Mr. Maligwa only assumed his duty at Civic Centre on the 1^st of April 2017 when the ex- municipal police employees were already serving their notice period.

 The hidden and invisible hand of those sponsoring the unfounded stories undermining the positive strides at Civic Centre is crystal clear, and Council will continue to champion service delivery and transform the lives of the people and no amount of lies will discredit the positive strides that have been made since April 2017 to date.

In conclusion the two articles can be described as high sounding nothing, fiction and misleading notion calculated at discrediting the image, social standing and integrity of the Town Clerk.

 Council would like to assure residents and stakeholders that service delivery remains the top priority coupled with advancing the implementation of our smart city vision as guided by the President’s 2030 vision, buttressed by rolling out development programmes that upgrade the status of the City and its residents.

For more information contact the Public Relations Officer on 0202063029.