MDC-T gets tough on aspiring councillors

MDC-T has disqualified applications from aspiring councillors who do not have any properties or possess any academic or tertiary qualification, a move that has been viewed as a response to numerous corruption allegations levelled against MDC-T led municipalities.

This comes in the backdrop of accusations that the current batch of councillors dull, inefficient and largely failing the local governance sector.

In an interview with Sunday News, the party's secretary for local government, who is also Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Mr Sesel Zvidzai said while they appreciate the effort put in by the current councillors they had decided to "move a gear up" so as to improve the calibre of councillors and thereby improve overall service delivery.

"We don't want people who can be easily manipulated by the council officials, if you get someone with academic and tertiary qualifications to be a councillor you are definitely assured that there won't be any form of abuse of office either by the councillors or the council officials.

"In the previous elections we didn't consider any qualifications but rather we were looking for those who could 'shoot' considering the environment we were in, this time around we have to move a gear up and ensure we get quality, we really mean business," said Mr Zvidzai.

He said it was essential for anyone thrust to any leadership position to have a managerial background as this eliminates the hustle of having to train councillors on basic managerial qualities, which was mandatory to service delivery.

"With academically upright councillors you are assured that any council policy will have a solid foundation, there won't be much need for us to keep a close tag on them, like the previous period were we had to spend some time training these councillors," said Deputy Minister Zvidzai.

He said it was highly likely that some of the current councillors will not contest as they were closely looking at their curriculum vitaes and no one will get special treatment.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister revealed that any aspiring councillor should at least have a residential stand in the city or town they were interested in contesting.

"Honestly if you want to be a councillor you have to be contributing to the city's economy that is through the payment of rates rather than being thrust into such a position without any property at all.

"We will however put in place a quarter system for the youth because we know that most of them don't have properties as yet," said Mr Zvidzai.

Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo has in the past blasted MDC-T councillors for being dull, inefficient and largely failing the local governance sector.

Contacted for comment Dr Chombo said the move by the MDC-T to tighten the selection criteria of councillors showed that they had also realised that the calibre of their current councillors was an insult to the local governance sector.

"I have said it a number of times that with the low levels of intelligence within the MDC-T councillors, they were misguided into believing that being a councillor was an opportunity to make money this explained by the number of corruption cases being leveled on them.

"During this past period we discovered that 95 percent of them are of no fixed abode, 90 percent have never carried a decent job in their lives and a majority of them don't even have any Ordinary Level passes, so what good would you expect from such people," said Dr Chombo.

He said from the onset the MDC-T selection criteria had been a clear fraud, as ordinary political activists had been thrust into these positions and given promises, which the party had later failed to fulfill.

Over the past couple of years a number of MDC-T led urban councils have had corruption allegations leveled against them, Beitbridge town councillors were caught up in a scam were they fraudulently acquired low-density stands and later reselling them at higher prices to desperate home seekers.

Bulawayo City Councillors also passed a resolution that saw them awarding themselves discounts and waivers when purchasing residential and commercial stands in the city, a move that was said to be illegal by the government.

Other urban councils that have had corruption allegations leveled against them include Harare City Council, Ruwa Town Council, Mutare City Council and Chpinge Town Council.