Mayor Hubert Fidze
Upenyu Chaota
The dust seems to have settled down in the labour wrangle between the City of Masvingo and its former employees represented by the Zimbabwe Urban Council Workers Union (ZUCWU) who took the city fathers to court over US$3.5 million salary arrears in 2013 resulting in many service delivery cars, including the mayoral Mercedes Benz being attached.
The Labour Court last week threw out the case saying the council can now take back their cars and ordered that the award which had been won by ZUCWU be set aside.
The court also ordered both parties to bear their own legal costs.
Town Clerk Adolf Gusha said justice has been finally served although the legal battle had put the city at a disadvantage.
“The attachment of the service delivery cars was a major blow to the city council. The city lost a big deal in pursuit of justice. It is quite fortunate that the council did not collapse after the cars were taken away.
“I can safely say service delivery was not much affected by the legal battle becaue we managed to buy new vehicles to replace some of those which had been attached.
“The cars have deteriorated but we can put a few dollars to service them and they will be up and running again. We had not abandoned them since we carried maintenance on them every two weeks,” said Gusha.local