Chamisa to fire Kambarami?

THE MDC Alliance has summoned Bulawayo councillors to its headquarters in Harare where party president Mr Nelson Chamisa is expected to deal with the chaos and alleged corruption dogging the local authority.

This comes as former councillors in the city held a crisis meeting yesterday and slammed the current crop of city fathers for shaming the City of Kings. The meeting held at the small city hall was attended by two former city Mayors Martin Moyo and Thaba Moyo as well as 15 former councillors.

Last week, Bulawayo City Council was thrown into turmoil after Deputy Mayor Clr Tinashe Kambarami and his sidekick Clr Silas Chigora suspended the Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube and violently removed him from office.

Mr Dube was accused of abuse of office among other charges. Bulawayo Mayor Solomon Mguni lifted Mr Dube's suspension the following day but he was only able to access his office on Monday after the local authority engaged the services of a locksmith.

Clr Kambarami is still holding onto the keys despite the lifting of the suspension of Mr Dube by his boss. Following the developments, the MDC Alliance has summoned the councillors to Harare today for a meeting with Mr Chamisa.

Clr Mguni yesterday confirmed that they are meeting the MDC president Mr Chamisa in Harare today.

"It's true. We received the notice from the provincial chairperson, Honourable James Sithole yesterday. The president is meeting all party deploys to Government. It's not unusual. It's for purposes of accountability and performance measurement. As you know we are accountable both to Government as well as to the party that deployed us," said Clr Mguni.

He said he was not privy to the agenda but however said his council was directed by the party last Saturday to reinstate the Town Clerk and bring normalcy to the city.

Clr Mguni said the meeting with president Chamisa and other party executive members would afford his council an opportunity to brief the leadership on developments in his council.

"I guess the leadership will expect a briefing on the progress we have made so far in that regard. We are so excited that at least the party sees it fit to meet us so that we can deal with the noise in the cockpit of BCC. We are quite happy that the president will at least give leadership and direction on the matter," he said.

Meanwhile, in an interview after their meeting, former Mayor Thaba Moyo said the aldermen committee was a recognised group in the local authority and their meeting was sanctioned.

He said as aldermen they condemn the uncivilised manner in which council is being run.

"We do not just interfere with the running of the council but we only come in when we realise that the city is diverting from its core business. That's the reason why we held today's meeting. It is a crisis meeting because there is conflict among the people who are supposed to work together in advancing the city's development agenda," said Ald Moyo.

He said they resolved to meet the mayor Clr Mguni so he could brief them on what is happening at council so that they could also proffer solutions.

The tiff between the Town Clerk and some councillors allegedly started after he resisted their moves to interfere with council management operations.

The councillors are said to be angry that the Town Clerk has refused to involve them in the distribution of the $5 million ward retention fund as well as the allocation of stands and premises.