Bulawayo gets new deputy mayor

BULAWAYO councillors on Tuesday elected Ward 8 Councillor Edwin Ndlovu the city's new Deputy Mayor replacing Donaldson Mabutho who was among the 12 councillors that were called by the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).

Clr Ndlovu garnered 13 votes beating Clr Mthokozisi Mahlangu of Ward 3 who got 12 votes following a second round of voting.

Four councillors participated in the first round with Clrs Ndlovu and Mahlangu being tied at 10 votes each while llrs Ntombizodwa Khumalo and Melisa Mabeza got three and two votes respectively.

Clr Ndlovu was declared deputy mayor during yesterday's special meeting which was presided over by Bulawayo Mayor Clr David Coltart, and attended by senior council officials, among them, Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube, Chamber Secretary Mrs Sikhangele Zhou, and city's directors.

Speaking after the election process, Clr Coltart bemoaned his party's triggered recalls, saying they were disruptive to council operations.

CCC through its interim secretary-general Mr Sengenzo Tshabangu recalled 12 councillors in Bulawayo, eight of whom held wards while four others were women elected through proportional representation.

"It is disruptive of the council's business and I just hope that now we have a deputy mayor elected we can get on with the running of the City of Bulawayo without any further disruptions. We need to understand that we face grave issues in the city," he said.

"We are facing a serious water crisis and we have asked Local Government and Public Works Minister (Winston Chitando) to declare the city a water shortage area. There has been a resolution to that regard."

Clr Coltart said despite their resolution it was pleasing that the Government is intervening to address the Bulawayo water crisis which has seen the local authority implementing a city-wide water shedding programme for more than two years.

Due to water shedding, residents go for days without running water due to low water levels at the city's dams which stand at 45 percent.

"I'm very gratified that I saw in today's Chronicle that the Government said that it will make resources available for the rehabilitation of boreholes in Nyamandlovu, which is going to supply us with a further 15 megalitres," said Clr Coltart.

He said if the Government declares Bulawayo a water shortage area, the situation will enable the local authority to mobilise funds to implement short to medium-term solutions to the city's crisis while waiting for the completion of the Lake Gwayi-Shangani Project.

Last week, the Government appointed a technical water committee to address Bulawayo's water crisis under the 100-day cycle with the target of increasing the delivery of water from the current 125 megalitres per day to 175 megalitres per day.

Clr Coltart said the local authority elected the new deputy mayor in conformity with the law.

"We were obliged to do this because of the provisions of the Urban Councils Act which states that where there is a vacancy for mayor or deputy mayor, we are obliged to elect a new one, and in this case a deputy mayor," he said.

 "We had no discretion and we had to comply with the dictates of the Urban Councils Act. I need to say it is unfortunate that we had to do this."

Clr Ndlovu said he was ready to serve in his new position.

"I'm happy that the residents of Bulawayo will have a deputy mayor who shall assist the mayor of Bulawayo in executing his duties along with other councillors," he said.

Clr Ndlovu said BCC needs to address issues of service delivery.

"The first issue is to clean the city, and that is priority number one and priority number two is service delivery. We need to make sure the people of Bulawayo get enough water," he said.

"To me, it doesn't matter the cost, we just need to have water. The roads and the sewer system need to be upgraded but that one will need more capital."