Two Mutare city senior employees were Thursday hauled before a city magistrate following their arrest earlier by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) for allegedly authorising the repair of a private vehicle belonging to a council employee out of the local authority’s budget without any paperwork.
City Director of Engineering Services Maxwell Kerith (38) and Patrick Magwegwe (34) who is acting workshop manager, face criminal abuse of office charges.
They were remanded out of custody to May 4 on $2 000 bail each.
The pair was also ordered to continue residing at its addresses as given to the authorities and not to interfere with state witnesses.
They are denying the charges.
Prosecutor Tirivanhu Mutyasira told the court that sometime in 2018, Vengai Tamirepi who works in the city council as Superintendent for Odzani Water Works was duly authorised to use his personal vehicle, Honda Fit, registration number AEA 3334, to carry out some official business after a council vehicle allocated to Odzani Water Works had broken down.
The condition for the use of the vehicle was that Tamirepi draws 20 litres of fuel from council once every week.
Court was told that from 2018 to date, Tamirepi has been using his car under the arrangement.
However, sometime in June 2020, the vehicle developed a mechanical fault.
Tamirepi approached Kerith requesting to have his car fixed under the city’s budget.
Kerith referred Tamirepi to Magwegwe with an instruction to obtain assistance.
Court was further told the vehicle was repaired without the necessary paperwork authorising the repair.
The vehicle was repaired by the council mechanic for three days.
The two authorised the repair of the vehicle against council policy which does not provide for any repairs of non-council vehicles.
Mutyasira said by doing so, the two acted contrary to or inconsistent with their duties as public officers by showing favour to Tamirepi.