News / National
Gweru residents blast MDC-T leadership
27 Aug 2013 at 23:21hrs | Views
GWERU residents have blasted the MDC-T leadership they accuse of trying to protect the party's interests by imposing a mayoral candidate for the city.
In an interview yesterday, Gweru Residents and Rate Payers Association (GRRA), Mr Cornelius Selipiwe said the MDC-T party's decision to impose councillor-elect Mr Charles Chikozho as the party's mayoral candidate was meant to protect the party's political interests.
They said the MDC-T decision had nothing to do with improving service delivery.
"From the residents' perspective, we believe it's not proper for the MDC-T party to impose mayoral candidates because those people who are being handpicked by the party will concentrate on protecting the party's interests. We don't want a mayoral candidate who will be in office to protect a particular party's interests, be it MDC-T or Zanu-PF. What we want is a mayoral candidate who comes from the people and is in the office to serve the interests of residents," he said.
Mr Selipiwe said imposing mayoral candidates by the MDC-T would result in the candidates having a bias toward the party's ideologies and interests.
"When councillors were elected, the whole idea was for them to represent the people from their wards. Yes, these councillors might be coming from different political parties but as residents, we are worried about service delivery. It then becomes a problem when a party imposes a candidate instead of letting the councillors choose a person of their choice, a person who is mature and willing to serve the people," he said.
Mr Selipiwe said Gweru residents were expecting a mature and qualified person to fill the mayoral post.
He said the residents were expecting a city leader who would listen to the residents' concerns.
"We don't want a repeat of a situation where residents would always clash with our councillors and leadership over issues to do with service delivery. We want committed people and this can only be achieved when the people of Gweru, especially the councillors themselves are given the chance to democratically elect their own leader," he said.
Gweru Hawkers and Vendors Association (GHVA) chairperson Mr John Tekere said the city's informal traders were expecting to have a mayoral candidate who would stop the harassing of the traders.
He said informal traders were of late being harassed by the municipal police and the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
"Zanu-PF which won the just-ended elections has been talking of empowerment and this is what we expect. We are genuine vendors trying to eke out an honest living. However, we are failing to operate because of the harassment by municipal police. We want a city leader who would put an end to this by creating more vending stalls for hundreds of vendors who are on the streets," said Mr Tekere.
In an interview yesterday, Gweru Residents and Rate Payers Association (GRRA), Mr Cornelius Selipiwe said the MDC-T party's decision to impose councillor-elect Mr Charles Chikozho as the party's mayoral candidate was meant to protect the party's political interests.
They said the MDC-T decision had nothing to do with improving service delivery.
"From the residents' perspective, we believe it's not proper for the MDC-T party to impose mayoral candidates because those people who are being handpicked by the party will concentrate on protecting the party's interests. We don't want a mayoral candidate who will be in office to protect a particular party's interests, be it MDC-T or Zanu-PF. What we want is a mayoral candidate who comes from the people and is in the office to serve the interests of residents," he said.
Mr Selipiwe said imposing mayoral candidates by the MDC-T would result in the candidates having a bias toward the party's ideologies and interests.
"When councillors were elected, the whole idea was for them to represent the people from their wards. Yes, these councillors might be coming from different political parties but as residents, we are worried about service delivery. It then becomes a problem when a party imposes a candidate instead of letting the councillors choose a person of their choice, a person who is mature and willing to serve the people," he said.
He said the residents were expecting a city leader who would listen to the residents' concerns.
"We don't want a repeat of a situation where residents would always clash with our councillors and leadership over issues to do with service delivery. We want committed people and this can only be achieved when the people of Gweru, especially the councillors themselves are given the chance to democratically elect their own leader," he said.
Gweru Hawkers and Vendors Association (GHVA) chairperson Mr John Tekere said the city's informal traders were expecting to have a mayoral candidate who would stop the harassing of the traders.
He said informal traders were of late being harassed by the municipal police and the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
"Zanu-PF which won the just-ended elections has been talking of empowerment and this is what we expect. We are genuine vendors trying to eke out an honest living. However, we are failing to operate because of the harassment by municipal police. We want a city leader who would put an end to this by creating more vending stalls for hundreds of vendors who are on the streets," said Mr Tekere.
Source - Zimpapers
