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THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is headed for a showdown with councillors aligned to the MDC Renewal Team reportedly penning a motion to remove the mayor, Councillor Martin Moyo and his deputy, Clr Gift Banda, Sunday News can exclusively reveal.
Reliable council sources revealed that the motion would be discussed this Wednesday at what is expected to be an explosive full council meeting. The motion requires a two-thirds majority vote for it to sail through.
The recent development comes after a number of councillors defected to join the Renewal Team after the MDC-T’s provincial elective congress which saw Clr Banda elevated to the position of provincial chairperson.
However, it is not yet clear whether the Renewal Team’s councillors can manage to garner the two-thirds majority required to pass the vote, with council sources revealing that there were some councillors who were not coming out in the open to declare their allegiance.
“No one knows who exactly is part of the Renewal Team save for the few that have publicly defected, so as it stands we will only know how the vote will go on Wednesday. Councillors in the General Purposes Committee dismissed the motion last week but this can easily be reversed by that two-thirds majority,” said the council source.
Contacted for comment, Clr Moyo confirmed the developments, however, noting that if some councillors felt he was not performing as per requirement they could replace him.
“We live in a democracy, if people want change then let them go ahead. There is no problem at all, sometimes there is merit in renewal but we shall see come Wednesday what will be decided,” said the mayor.
In the motion, penned by Ward Two councillor Sithabile Mataka, she moves that the council changes council committees, including chairpersons of committees, the mayor and deputy mayor.
“I have found it to be fair that council committee (sic) should change so that all councillors of the city could be afforded the opportunity to know how council operate (sic) through its committees. As a ward councillor one is not restricted to one or two fields but to all departments. So by changing committees, we will be getting exposure to all departments of council and that gives us experience.
“There are so many benefits that go with the changing of committees as was indicated by other councillors which I real (sic) consider to be important,” wrote Clr Mataka.
According to the Urban Councils Act Section 103, council can rotate council committees every August but this has not happened at the Bulawayo City Council since 2009. In the previous council Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo had to intervene to calm the storm.
However, in a submission made by the council’s legal committee, the above motion cannot see the light of day due to various legal obstacles, with the only route out being that councillors chairing various council committees, the mayor and deputy mayor, voluntarily resign to pave way for review of their work and re-appointment or appointment of new committees.
“The motion by the councillor seeks to dissolve the standing committees that were appointed by a council resolution in order to facilitate a review and a reshuffle. In simple terms it is an application to rescind that particular resolution. It must, however, be clear that the rescission is not for the appointment but is for purposes of reviewing the work of the standing committees, re-appointment or appointment of new standing committees.
“As a way forward, the suggestion is that at the expiry of one year, members in the standing committees should voluntarily resign to pave way for review of their work, this should be done by consent. To avoid confusion in the future, the resolution should be precise that the standing committees be dissolved yearly and in August to allow for the review of their work,” read part of the council minutes.
In terms of the mayor and deputy mayor, the legal committee also advised that they could not be removed by a mere council resolution. They noted that the mayor, his deputy and committee chairpersons could only be removed on the grounds of: inability to perform functions of their office due to mental or physical incapacity, gross incompetence, gross misconduct, conviction of an offence involving dishonesty, corruption or abuse of office or willful violation of the law including a local authority by-law.
“What this means is that the seat of the mayor, chairperson or councillor becomes vacant if he/she has been removed for committing these offences or as soon as the political party has written to the Minister of Local Government (Public Works and National Housing) that the member has ceased to belong to the party.
“In this instance no facts that the mayor committed any offence and the political party has not written to parliament indicating he has been expelled so he cannot step down. While both the Urban Councils Act and the Constitution are silent on the office of the Deputy Mayor, logic follows that the same provisions which apply to the mayor equally apply to the office of the deputy mayor as well,” read the minutes.
This is the second time this year that the issue of rotation of councillors has come to the fore after the September motion by Ward 15 councillor Tamani Moyo, where he proposed that the tenure of the current committees be indefinite noting that “you cannot change a winning team . . . change is disruptive and will negatively affect the performance of council”.
Online Reporter