'Zanu PF plotting to impose commissions in councils'

MDC Alliance official Descent Bajila has claimed that Zanu PF is plotting to impose independent commissions to run the urban councils as the councillors cannot be installed before the president is inaugurated since Emmerson Mnangagwa's victory is being contested in court by the Nelson Chamisa led party.

Bajila said the game is getting tricky.

"You see, Parliament and Local Authorities may not be sworn in before the President is sworn in. So the EDiots have come up with plan B. Their plan is to pretend to be worried about the leadership vacuum at Local Government level and invoke Ministerial powers so that the Minister of Local Government, appoints Commissions to run local authorities in the interim. These Commissions are very expensive and unelected bodies," he said.

"The current ones being set up are primarily in areas where MDC ALLIANCE won the majority of councillors. The strategy is to create a fight between MDC Alliance councillors and their National Leadership, particularly the Presidential Candidate. Once these Commissions are in place the public will want to know why there are Commissions when they voted for councillors. The answer will be that "the Alliance leadership is delaying the swearing in of MPs and Councillors by persuing that court case. Government has thus taken measures to put in place people who will be in office in the interim so that services can be delivered".

He said to spite the Alliance further, they have carefully chosen controversial people as Commissioners.

"For example in Chitungwiza Municipality Commission they have chosen Mr Macheka, the father in law of the late Morgan Tsvangirai as Commission Chair. Having Elizabeth Macheka-Tsvangirai's father usurp the powers of duly elected MDC Alliance councillors fits into a dangerous narrative that if handled carelessly has the potential of being a fault line in the Alliance. I posit that the choice of Mr Macheka was a careful one and is designed not for the purposes of service delivery but to spite the alliance leadership, feed into a divisive narrative and above all put pressure on the alliance with respect to the pace of the Concourt case," he said.

"In Gwanda, they have appointed the ZANU PF District Executive as the Commission and made former Mayor Rido Mpofu to chair it. In other cities, they are choosing losing ZANU PF candidates and former Councillors as Commissioners. In Bulawayo, they are likely to appoint a Commission made up of Ndebele speaking civil servants chaired by a woman. This will again have nothing to do with service delivery but to fit into a cocktail of Khuphe-MRP narrative. They can fool some people some times but they cannot fool all people all the times."