I’m still the boss: Vic Falls town clerk

 VIC­TO­RIA Falls town clerk Ron­nie Dube yes­ter­day in­sisted that he re­mains the coun­cil boss, a day af­ter re­ports emerged that he had been sus­pended on charges of cor­rup­tion, abuse of of­fice and in­com­pe­tence.

The sus­pen­sion of Dube, a for­mer chief ex­ec­u­tive of the Tsholot­sho Ru­ral District (RDC), comes a month af­ter the lo­cal au­thor­ity re­newed his con­tract by another five years af­ter re­ceiv­ing praise on his work­man­ship.

Un­der Dube, Vic­to­ria Falls was granted city sta­tus in De­cem­ber 2020 to be­come the first city in Mata­bele­land North and the sec­ond af­ter Bulawayo in the whole south­ern re­gion.

How­ever, Vic­to­ria Falls mayor Somveli Dlamini said Dube has been sus­pended with im­me­di­ate ef­fect, and with no pay and ben­e­fits pend­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

“It ap­pears to me there are acts of mis­con­duct or omis­sion in­con­sis­tent with the ful­fil­ment of the ex­press or im­plied con­di­tions of your con­tract or du­ties that need to be in­ves­ti­gated,” Dlamini wrote in a let­ter dated April 28.

“It is pru­dent that you are sus­pended from duty and of­fice of town clerk to pave the way for in­ves­ti­ga­tions which when con­cluded will guide the coun­cil on the course of ac­tion to take.”

Dlamini cited sec­tion 139(3)(a) of the Ur­ban Coun­cil Act in deny­ing Dube any salary and ben­e­fits as stated in the con­tract.

In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Dube was not amused by his “sus­pen­sion” as he in­sisted that he re­mains the re­sort town’s town clerk.

“As far as I am con­cerned, the sus­pen­sion I know of is that cir­cu­lat­ing on so­cial me­dia. I have not re­ceived any let­ter on that and such, I have dis­re­garded the so-called sus­pen­sion as I con­tinue with my of­fi­cial du­ties.

The mayor never con­vened any spe­cial coun­cil meet­ing on this so-called sus­pen­sion. I re­main the town clerk,” Dube said.

The Vic­to­ria Falls mayor could not be reached for com­ment.

Dube is not new to the Vic­to­ria Falls Mu­nic­i­pal­ity af­ter hav­ing served as the town’s first cham­ber sec­re­tary be­tween 2002 and 2005.

He re­joined the lo­cal au­thor­ity on De­cem­ber 1, 2016 re­plac­ing Christopher Dube, the cur­rent Bulawayo town clerk. Dube also served as the Gwanda Mu­nic­i­pal­ity cham­ber sec­re­tary and left the Tsholot­sho RDC un­der a cloud.

Source: I’m still the boss: Vic Falls town clerk (01/05/2021)