CCC censures councillors over controversial motion

The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Bulawayo provincial leadership has distanced itself from a controversial motion proposed by one of its councillors seeking to dissolve a key city council committee - a move believed to be part of a wider bid to extend town clerk Christopher Dube's tenure.

The party has ordered the motion's sponsor, Cowdray Park councillor Nkosilathi Hove Mpofu, and all those who supported the proposal to withdraw it immediately or face disciplinary action.

The standoff erupted after Bulawayo City Council's general purposes (GP) committee rejected a proposal, reportedly initiated by Dube himself, to extend his contract to 2028. The committee dismissed the plan as "illegal and unfeasible," arguing that his existing one-year extension - granted when his initial four-year term expired in September 2023 - could not be altered.

In a stern message to its councillors on Friday, the CCC provincial leadership declared the motion "null and void," stressing that it did not reflect the party's official position.

"We would like to bring to your attention that this motion is not a party position," read the statement. "May all the councillors who were involved in that motion and the author of it withdraw that motion with immediate effect, as advised by Senator Kucaca Phulu speaking on behalf of the secretary-general and the Bulawayo provincial leadership."

The CCC warned that failure to comply with the directive would trigger disciplinary measures. Party insiders said some councillors were defying the order, claiming to have clearance from "the party's highest office."

The controversy has exposed sharp divisions within Bulawayo City Council. Dube, who has served as town clerk since October 2016, is accused of attempting to use political manoeuvres to prolong his stay in office. After his contract expired in 2023, councillors granted him a one-year extension, but he later invoked a new government policy on retirement age to seek a longer term - allowing him to remain in office until the age of 70 in 2028.

When the GP committee blocked this proposal, insiders allege Dube began pushing for its dissolution. On October 27, Councillor Mpofu tabled a motion to dissolve the GP committee, a move critics say was designed to purge dissenting members and replace them with councillors more sympathetic to the town clerk.

Confidential council minutes seen by Southern Eye suggest that 16 councillors signed the motion, which was expected to go before a full council vote later this month.

However, the plan has sparked procedural confusion. Chamber secretary Sikhangele Zhou reminded councillors that under the Urban Councils Act, committees elect their own chairpersons, and council cannot unilaterally reconstitute them.

The CCC's intervention has thrown the motion into disarray and effectively halted the process, at least temporarily. But the fallout has left the opposition-led council deeply divided, with political loyalties, administrative control, and governance ethics all now at the centre of an intensifying standoff.