Coltart, deputy mayor clash over Town Clerk's contract

Bulawayo's city governance is mired in confusion following conflicting statements from the mayor and deputy mayor over the legality of recent council proceedings and the status of Town Clerk Christopher Dube's contract. The disputes have thrown the city's administration into disarray, with each official presenting sharply divergent accounts of the same events.

Deputy Mayor Edwin Ndlovu released a statement on Monday asserting that the council meeting held on November 5, 2025, was legal and that its resolution to extend Dube's contract by a potential five years is "legally binding." This directly contradicts Bulawayo Mayor David Coltart, who last week described a subsequent meeting held after he adjourned the session as "illegal," recounting scenes of "mayhem, uproar and shouting" where he claimed to have been personally threatened and prevented from leaving the chamber.

At the heart of the conflict is a highly charged debate over the extension of Dube's contract, which was due to expire on November 30, 2025. Ndlovu contends that the issue has been under discussion for over a year. He said that in 2024, the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe advised the council to align the Town Clerk's contract with the five-year terms common in government and parastatals. Bulawayo Council responded by amending the contract to allow for two potential five-year terms rather than the previous four-year arrangements. According to Ndlovu, additional extensions were planned via separate resolutions to accommodate the clerk reaching pensionable age.

The matter became more complex following a letter from the Central Government on April 7, 2025, citing Statutory Instrument 197 of 2024, which raised the retirement age for public officials from 65 to 70 years. This prompted internal debates on whether the SI applied to fixed-term contracts like that of the Town Clerk. Ndlovu said the General Purposes Committee recommended extending Dube's contract by a year to November 2026 and proposed seeking legal opinion on whether further extensions could follow.

During the full council meeting on November 5, 2025, the situation reportedly descended into disorder. Mayor Coltart described the meeting as being hijacked by intimidation, prompting him to adjourn and leave after claiming that councillors blocked his exit and issued threats. Deputy Mayor Ndlovu, however, painted a different picture, denying any threats or insults, and accused the mayor of abandoning his duties rather than restoring order. He said councillors had already signalled their support for the extension before Coltart left and that Councillor Mxolisi Mahlangu was appointed to chair the meeting in his absence. Under this leadership, councillors allegedly voted to extend Dube's contract by one year to November 2026 and a further four years to November 2030.

Ndlovu defended the legality of the process, citing council authority to extend the contract as long as Dube did not exceed the legal retirement age of 70 and providing an attendance register of 28 councillors who participated in the decision. He argued that the council's resolutions were therefore binding and urged officials to prioritise service delivery over personal conflicts.

Mayor Coltart, however, disputes this narrative, insisting that any meeting held after his adjournment was illegal. He claimed several councillors confided in him that they felt intimidated by a small group aggressively advocating the five-year extension.

The standoff has exposed deep divisions within Bulawayo's city leadership, raising questions about procedural adherence, authority, and the management of the city's key administrative positions. Residents and observers are left to monitor whether the council can reconcile these differences or if the dispute will further undermine local governance and service delivery.