Correspondent|MDC Alliance National Youth Organising Secretary Morgan Ncube who was recently elected first Mayor of Beitbridge Town Council is now a proud driver of a top of the range double cab 4×4 Ford Ranger acquired for him by the local authority.

The vehicle was acquired under the guidance of the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.

Beitbridge town clerk, Loud Ramakgapola handed over the vehicle to Morgan Ncube on Monday.

Efforts to get an official comment on the cost of the vehicle were fruitless as Beitbridge public relations officer Raniel Ndou referred questions to Finance Director Anymore Mbedzi who in turn referred questions to Ramakgapola.

Sources within council however indicated that the cost of the car was over half a million rands.

Ramakgapola said at the handover ceremony that council resolved to buy the car following guidance from the Minister that they should buy their mayor a vehicle.

“In terms of requirements from the Ministry, we must seek for authorization from the Ministry before we buy the vehicle that is not manufactured in Zimbabwe. We therefore wrote to the Ministry and requested permission to buy the mayoral vehicle.

“We got the greenlight to buy the car around 2015 or 2016. It has been a long journey, year in year out we have been budgeting for the Mayoral vehicle,” Ramakgapola.

He said the delay in the purchase was due to some internal issues among councilors otherwise the vehicle could have been bought last year.

The vehicle was ordered together with the Finance Director’s vehicle around April this year and was delivered last week.