VICTORIA FALLS - A move by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) to remove its Mayor of the Victoria Falls resort town has failed as the Minister of Local Government Rural and Urban Development has come to his defence. (Pictured: Local Government Minister Ignatious Chombo blocki
Mayor Nkosilathi Jiyane was recalled by the MDC T and this technically meant that he should be replaced.
The Town Clerk, Godfrey Maphosa, said: I have not received any communication from the Ministry nor have I received any letter relating to the matter so I do not know of any developments.
MDC-T represented by its councillors had been trying to push out Jiyane, arguing that he was incompetent. As a result no full council meeting had been held for the past two months.
A councillor said: We have been trying to put a motion to discuss council leadership from the office of the Mayor to chairpersons of committees but management has refused.
So come Tuesday we are going to bulldoze to introduce the motion because we feel the Mayor has to go because he is incompetent. He might try to hide behind the Minister (Ignatius Chombo) but we will get him.
The councillor added that one of the major fall-outs with the Mayor was his decision allegedly to agree with the management to go against a council resolution to suspend the acting treasurer, Thabani Khumalo and the acting accountant, Mehluli Sibanda.
The two were suspended for the disappearance of about US$23 000 by a creditor clerk who is on the run.
Several resolutions are failing to go through because of the Mayor who is protecting some people in management. So we want him out, said the councillor.
Management is arguing that councillors cannot remove the Mayor from office as the Urban Councils Act states that the President may require a mayor to vacate office if found guilty of any conduct that renders him/her unsuitable as mayor, or is mentally or physically incapable of carrying out the functions of his/her office.
The Act also allows the Minister to suspend a mayor if he has reasonable grounds to suspect that he is guilty of conduct. The Act does not allow a political party to boot out a mayor.
Chombo said MDC-T cannot fire the Victoria Falls Mayor because he is performing his duties satisfactorily.
He warned the Morgan Tsvangirai-led formation to desist from bringing internal party squabbles into local governance issues.
It is believed MDC-T wanted to replace the mayor with a former commercial farmer Larry Cunnings.
However, MDC-T National Secretary for Local Government Sesel Zvidzai, who is also the Deputy Minister of Local Government, said the MDC will not hesitate to axe the mayor because his party had no place for lazy bones.
Zvidzai said the MDC had no place for corrupt officials and would expel those who put the name of the party into disrepute.
“I set up a team that is headed by the MP for Hwange East Thuse Sansole to investigate our councillors in Victoria Falls, they have finished the investigations and they have come up with recommendations. From what they submitted I can see that there is a lot of disharmony in Victoria Falls and we are not going to ignore that. I am going to sit down with him (mayor) and decide on his fate.
He said his party would not hesitate to fire councillors who did not follow the values of the MDC.
“The mayor was deployed by the MDC. If a person fails to adhere to the party principles then he will be removed even if the ministry protects the accused the person will cease to be part of the MDC,” said Zvidzai.
Zvidzai said that the MDC, which had a stronghold on urban councils will act according to the party principles as evidenced by the expulsion from the party of all the 24 councillors in Chitungwiza on corruption charges.
Post published in: News