The Government has warned elected councillors that it will replace them with commissions to run the local authorities if they fail to deliver on their mandates, reported Source.
Speaking in Chitungwiza on Monday, Harare Provincial Affairs and Devolution secretary Tafadzwa Muguti said the Government will not appoint an acting mayor in failed local authorities but replace them with commissions.
He made the remarks while presiding over mayoral elections at the Chitungwiza Municipality where Lovemore Maiko was re-elected Mayor while Jerita Mutingwende was elected Deputy Mayoress. Said Muguti:
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.
If you repeat what you did last year, I don’t want to lie to you. This time around, there will be no acting. I will put a commission in place. I have warned you.
I don’t want to hear fights. You have been elected and there is nothing to fight about. Work together as Zimbabweans.
You can debate or argue, but when you walk out that door, you have a decision that benefits Chitungwiza.
Chitungwiza and Manyame Rural Residents Association (CMURA) director Marvelous Micheal Kumalo said councils should never be run by commissions which he said are not accountable to voters. He said:
The Constitution of Zimbabwe is clear that elected officials are accountable to the electorate and it also says local authorities are run by councillors directly elected by the electorate.
That is why the practice and habit of hiring mayors from non-elected councillors was abolished.
It is all meant to promote that elected leaders account to the electorate not otherwise.
So my point is that an appointed commissioner will be accountable to the appointing authority and not to the electorate.
We do not want partisan politics to be pursued in the name of administration and supervision of our local authorities, mainly those run by the opposition movement.
But Zimbabwe National Organisation of Associations and Residents Trust (ZNOART) chairperson Shalvar Chikomba defended Muguti’s stance saying elected councillors have shortchanged residents over the past ten years. He said:
We will support the establishment of commissions if these councillors fail again because we cannot just sit down seeing mistakes that were made over the past 10 years. We are giving them another chance.
We are worried that we are not going anywhere in terms of development. Councillors take being elected as a way to fatten their pockets.
Under the late former President Robert Mugabe, the appointment of commissions to run council business was a common occurrence.
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.
Source PindulaNews
