By A Correspondent- Veteran municipal manager and City of Masvingo town clerk for 15 years, Adolf Gusha has retired.

Deputy city engineer Edward Mukaratirwa has since been appointed acting town clerk with effect from September 01, to serve until a new substantive town clerk is appointed.

A special full council meeting convened yesterday, August 22, announced the departure of Gusha who had been at the helm since 2004.

Masvingo Mayor Collen Maboke said council was pleased with Gusha’s contribution to the city since he joined council 32 years ago.

“We are happy with the work that he did for the city. He worked with many mayors including Francis Aphiri. We thank him for initiating many projects including the water augmentation programme which we are still carrying forward. As we wish him the best in his retirement, we also wish our acting town clerk the best in his duties,” said Maboke.

Gusha was overdue for retirement, and had initially been expected to leave at the end of August 2018.Gusha joined the municipality in 1987, and served in various capacities before being appointed substantive town clerk in 2004.

Before joining Masvingo town council, he worked for Shurugwi Rural District Council and for the Ministry of Local Government.

His record as the topmost council manager in Masvingo was marked by both ups and downs; many will remember his runs-in with former executive mayor, the late Alois Chaimiti in 2007 and 2008.

He won for the city many service delivery awards but was also there when former employees left the council destitute after a costly legal suit for unpaid wages. The legal wrangle resulted in all council vehicles getting attached in 2011.

Gusha, however, presided over a remarkable recapitalisation drive which saw the council buying new service vehicles altogether.

The introduction of a roads levy in 2015 drew the indignation of many residents, but it seems the idea has paid off, with the city in 2017 commissioning its own fleet of earth moving equipment needed for roadworks.

Gusha will mostly be remembered probably for leaving behind a city that boasts arguably the cleanest municipal water in the country. The city recorded few, if any, incidences of cholera in 2008, at a time when thousands were dying of the waterborne diseases in other urban areas.

Gusha, however, leaves behind decaying pipes and deep trenches of the botched Mucheke Trunk Sewer project which has cost the ratepayer millions of dollars yet with nothing to show of it.

He also leaves at a time when the quality of service delivery is plummeting, with refuse being collected but not on a regular basis. The whole city has only two refuse compactors.-TellZim