Beverly Bizeki
Masvingo City Council is set to dispose 14 old council vehicles through a public auction after the Finance committee resolved to dispose of the vehicles for a number of reasons.
The disposal of the vehicles was outlined in the minutes of Finance and General Purposes Committee meeting held on September 23 after a tour of the municipal workshops by the committee.
“Following the tour of the municipal workshops by the committee before the meeting, a number of vehicles had been recommended for disposal through public auction as detailed below,” read the minutes.
The first vehicle is a Dynapac Roller which is to be disposed owing to the unavailability of old roller spares in the market.
A Changlin grader which has been down since 2020 is to be disposed as well as spares are difficult to find on the market.
Other vehicles to be disposed include a Mazda B1800 Ambulance, AAE 5858 Mazda B1800, AAE 8947 Mitsubishi L 200, AAE 5723 Hino Fire Tender, and AAE 5699 Mitsubishi L 200.
Two ADB TATA trucks, two UD tipper trucks, 515-868A Carmichael Fire Tender and CAT Grader AAE 5856 are also set to be disposed of.
Masvingo city has been operating with a depleted fleet leading to service delivery challenges where transport is required.
Refuse compactors are also in shortage and at one point the local authority was forced to hire the services of lorries from Central Mechanical Engineering Department (CMED) to chip in and alleviate refuse collection challenges while lack of funds to purchase enough refuse trucks has been another challenge.
