News / National
Tendai Biti ally elected new Harare mayor
04 Sep 2020 at 06:18hrs | Views
MDC ALLIANCE-SPONSORED candidate Jacob Mafume yesterday scraped through to land the Harare mayoral post in a tightly contested election, where he was pitted against Luckson Mukunguma of the Thokozani Khupe-led MDC-T.
Mafume garnered 19 votes against Mukunguma's 14, but MDC Alliance supporters' victory celebrations were cut short by police who maintained a heavy presence at Town House as factional tension threatened to boil over.
Mafume replaces MDC Alliance's Herbert Gomba, who was recalled by the MDC-T together with five other councillors after they refused to dump their leader Nelson Chamisa and join Khupe's camp.
Mafume said his focus would be on service delivery and not political wars.
"The residents are for all, every councillor comes from a ward where people want water, refuse collected and want services done. We should manage the city for everyone, for MDC and Zanu-PF and all the residents," he said.
Chamisa and Khupe have been embroiled in nasty fights for control of the opposition party since March when the Supreme Court, in a moot ruling, recognised the latter as the interim leader of the MDC-T.
Since then, Khupe has been on the rampage decimating Chamisa's party structures, recalling his legislators and councillors and grabbing party offices.
MDC Alliance sources said the party settled for Mafume to avoid a recall by Khupe in the event she decides to continue with her purge on MDC Alliance councillors.
Mafume was seconded to council by the People's Democratic Party then led by Tendai Biti.
Mafume garnered 19 votes against Mukunguma's 14, but MDC Alliance supporters' victory celebrations were cut short by police who maintained a heavy presence at Town House as factional tension threatened to boil over.
Mafume replaces MDC Alliance's Herbert Gomba, who was recalled by the MDC-T together with five other councillors after they refused to dump their leader Nelson Chamisa and join Khupe's camp.
Mafume said his focus would be on service delivery and not political wars.
"The residents are for all, every councillor comes from a ward where people want water, refuse collected and want services done. We should manage the city for everyone, for MDC and Zanu-PF and all the residents," he said.
Chamisa and Khupe have been embroiled in nasty fights for control of the opposition party since March when the Supreme Court, in a moot ruling, recognised the latter as the interim leader of the MDC-T.
Since then, Khupe has been on the rampage decimating Chamisa's party structures, recalling his legislators and councillors and grabbing party offices.
MDC Alliance sources said the party settled for Mafume to avoid a recall by Khupe in the event she decides to continue with her purge on MDC Alliance councillors.
Mafume was seconded to council by the People's Democratic Party then led by Tendai Biti.
Source - newsday
