Bulawayo mayor David Coltart has said he will stay put in office and will not resign from the Citizens Coalition for Change despite the recent resignation of the opposition party’s leader Nelson Chamisa.
Chamisa announced his resignation as CCC president in a statement on January 25 this year with some CCC legislators subsequently resigning from Parliament.
However, in a statement posted on social platform X, Coltart said he had consulted various stakeholders who advised him to stay in office.
“The overwhelming response, particularly from the Bulawayo public, has been to remain in office. I have also been written to by people I deeply respect.
“Some of whom have been involved in the struggle to bring democracy and freedom to Zimbabwe for over 6 decades, asking me not to resign.
“These are people who have fought consistently during their entire lives for freedom and I take their views seriously,” Coltart said.
He said he would see through his five-year tenure as the mayor of Bulawayo.
“I am conscious that I can be recalled at any time but so be it. I would rather be removed from office by unscrupulous politicians than betray the trust and goodwill of innocent, hardworking and principled residents of Bulawayo by resigning,” he said.
Coltart said resigning as mayor would be disastrous for the city as he was in the middle of initiatives for the city’s development.
“Bulawayo faces unique challenges at the present time. Aside from being in a disastrous state after decades of neglect, it is running out of water and faces severe water shortages this coming year.
“While of course there is little that I as one person can do to remedy this, I have been involved in critically important initiatives during the last few months to provide short, medium and long term solutions to the crisis.
“If I were to resign now some of these initiatives may be undermined to the detriment of the city as a whole. While the resignation of any MP is of course tragic, and a great loss to debate in Parliament, it does not have the same direct impact on citizens as would be the resignation of the mayor of a city.”
He also revealed that Chamisa had told him about his intentions to resign.
“I asked him what his expectations were of me. His response was that I should keep on the work I have been doing. At no point has he asked me to resign,” Coltart said.
