GOVERNMENT has threatened to reintroduce commissions to run local authorities which fail to deliver on their mandates. In remarks aimed at the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC)-dominated urban councils, Harare Provincial Affairs and Devolution secretary Tafadzwa Muguti, said government would not appoint an acting mayor in failed councils but replace them with commissions.
He made the threats while superintending over mayoral elections at the Chitungwiza Municipality on Monday this week. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration has accused opposition councillors of running down councils. The Zanu PF government has in the past been in the habit of expelling mayors and deputy mayors in opposition-run urban councils.
Appointment of commissions to run council business was commonplace during the late former President Robert Mugabe’s reign when he used former Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo to do the hatchet job. For instance, the City of Harare had no elected mayor for more than two years after MDC mayor Elias Mudzuri was fired in April 2004. Chombo’s predecessors replaced suspended mayors with acting mayors.
Muguti said: “To the incoming 27 members, I do not want any surprises or nonsense in council chambers. I don’t want to hear fights in council chambers, Zanu PF versus CCC. You have that bad reputation, Chitungwiza.” He warned the councillors against neglecting service provision.
Source Newsday
