Mayor ordered to surrender $63k car

Source: Mayor ordered to surrender $63k car – DailyNews Live

Jeffrey Muvundusi      31 May 2017

BULAWAYO – The Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC has ordered the council here to
immediately put on sale one of the two recently purchased mayoral
vehicles, with the proceeds to be channelled towards service delivery.

The city’s mayor Martin Moyo recently took delivery of a $118 000 Mercedes
Benz GLE 250, hardly three months after the local authority had bought him
a $63 000 Chevrolet Trailblazer.

Following public outcry, the council summoned the mayor and his
councillors to a May 25 meeting in which provincial spokesperson Felix
Mafa yesterday said as a party, they were forced to come up with the
resolution regarding the contentious matter.

“Because there was an outcry of two expensive mayoral cars, the MDC
provincial executive committee came up with a resolution that the council
must let the mayor use the Benz as part of his working conditions but park
the Trailblazer forthwith so that it can be sold and its proceeds used for
service provision,” Mafa said.

“It was thought to be very expensive for the poor council to spend $118
000 on  the Benz GLE 250 and the $63 000 for the Trailblazer. If need be,
the town clerk must use the BT50 model until his car of choice is
delivered by September 2017,” he said.

According to Mafa, council was forced to acquire the Trailblazer after a
delay in delivery of the Benz, which had been ordered from Germany.

The provincial spokesperson said living a luxurious life at the expense of
the suffering masses was not part of the MDC’s DNA.

“We therefore decided that therefore we are social democratic party which
should not live luxuriously and exuberantly at the expense of the
residents.

“As a result, we have ordered our councillors to go and make a resolution
that will see the Trailblazer be parked immediately and advertised for
resale so that the proceeds go and alleviate service delivery to the
people of Bulawayo,” he said.

In an earlier interview with the Daily News, Moyo saw no problem with the
acquisition of expensive vehicles.

“Council buys tens of cars in any year. The mayoral Benz is just one car
in a large fleet of cars. At $118 000, that is what it cost. It is in fact
in the lower range. The car is not Martin Moyo’s. I’ll leave it behind for
my successor in 12 months,” Moyo said.