Harare City has fired its acting head of City Valuation and Estates division Mr Eben Franscisco.

His 29 subordinates from the division have been reinstated and Council says those with cases to answer would be summoned from their workstations.

The employees were brought back after it became difficult to gather evidence from them as they were either unavailable or simply refused to cooperate. City human capital director Dr Cainos Chingombe confirmed the dismissal yesterday. Mr Fransisco was facing corruption charges arising from the issuance of car sales stands. His hearing was conducted last Friday.

He confirmed receiving his dismissal notice but did not say much as he was still consulting his lawyers. Harare City has lost the majority of its labour cases with the city paying up to over half a million dollars in single cases as arbitration costs.

Several affected car dealers claimed they had paid huge sums of money to council officials in an effort to regularise their operations, but were surprised when they were advised that they were operating illegally.

Some claimed to have paid over $3 000 to named council officials.