Council chairpersons table motion to fire Byo Mayor

A MOTION on the rotation of council committee chairpersons has taken a new twist with the incumbent council chairpersons recently tabling a motion to have the mayor, Councillor Thaba Moyo and his deputy, Clr Amen Mpofu also fired.

This comes amid revelations that the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) faction has had to send a two-man delegation to intervene in the latest scandal that has hit the local authority.

The motion to have the mayor and his deputy also fired was tabled by incumbent finance committee chairperson, Clr Nduna Dladla, in a confidential report where he alleges that the mayor and his deputy were mere ceremonial appointees, thus there was nothing special about them.

Clr Dladla further accuses the deputy mayor of having a personal vendetta against the chairpersons as they had in a number of occasions opposed his move to embezzle council funds and resources.

The confidential report further states that Clr Dladla further sent follow up letters dated 12 January and 13 January pressing the local authority to make a decision on the matter.

According to an impeccable council source the MDC-T had to dispatch Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development who is also the party's secretary for local governance, Sesel Zvidzai and Minister of Water Resources, Development and Management Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, who is part of the party's guidance council to help resolve the impasse.

"What happened is we were supposed to have a council committee meeting last Wednesday to finalise the matter but we got a directive from the party on Tuesday to the effect that we should immediately cancel the meeting as the party wanted to meet with us on Thursday.

"During the meeting Zvidzai and Nkomo told councillors that the party felt there was a need for councillors to know that they held their positions because of the party and not their own accord and that there now will be a caucus on 31 January where they will be told which chairpersons to elect," said the source.

During the meeting on 31 January the party will meet with the councillors to forward names of the new chairpersons, which will then be confirmed at a special council meeting to be held on a date yet to be announced.

Confirming the meeting Deputy Minister Zvidzai said the party had noted with concern that the councillors were now concerning themselves with power struggles thus the need for them to intervene and remind them of the party's guiding principles.

"It is important for our councillors to be guided by our party's principles, these being that of democracy and openness, as you might know the issue of committee chairpersons has attracted a lot of interest as these councillors have been too concerned with power struggles rather than the core reason they are there, this being service delivery," said the deputy minister.

The chairpersons that were fired are Clrs Dladla (Finance and Development), Thembeni Khoza (Health, Housing and Education) Edward Ndlovu (Environmental Management and Engineering), Phinias Ndlovu (Town Lands and Planning), James Sithole (Municipal Procurement) the deputy mayor Clr Amen Mpofu and the mayor, Clr Moyo, who is the chairperson of the general purposes committee.