Kwekwe City Council Committee’s elections had to be abandoned Wednesday following clashes between Zanu PF and CCC councillors. Zanu PF councillors accused CCC councillors of sidelining them in key decision making positions at the local authority after CCC had elected three of its councillors to chair the Finance, Works and Auditing Committees.
The election for the chairpersons of the Housing and Health Committees had to be abandoned and postponed to Friday.
Kwekwe currently has 18 councillors with 15 from the CCC and three from Zanu-PF. Kwekwe Mayor Henry Madzorera confirmed the deferment of the remaining committees.
“We postponed the elections of the two remaining committees of Health and Housing to Friday following misunderstandings of who would chair those committees. On Friday we will be finalising the elections with the hope that the misunderstandings will have been resolved,” he said.
Zanu-PF Councillor Edu Makomborero Mlambo told this publication that the CCC councillors had told them they had been advised by senior party officials to chair all committees.
“It is true the elections had to be abandoned after we complained about the conduct of CCC councillors who are effectively sidelining Zanu-PF councillors. They told us that they are running the show and that their leadership told them that they must take charge of all the committees. That is unacceptable as it doesn’t bode well on proper governance. The moment we are in the chamber we are civic leaders who are serving all despite their political affiliations. We demanded that Zanu-PF must chair at least one of the remaining committees since there are two political parties in the council, it is our prayer that when we meet on Friday they will come to their senses and see the reason that what we want is to serve the residents,” he said.
Meanwhile, Alex Senge was elected chairperson of the Finance Committee, former deputy Mayor Pikurayi Musipa chairing Works and deputised by Joseph Tagara, while the Audit Committee is chaired by Albert Zinhanga and deputised by Kudakwashe Gwamuri.
Source NewZimbabwe
