Bulawayo Mayor to seek re-election

Pamela Shumba, Senior Reporter
BULAWAYO Mayor Alderman Martin Moyo says he will seek a second term in office although he faces stiff competition from aspiring candidates from his party, MDC-T.

In an interview after his valedictory message to review his term of office from September 2013 to March 2018 on Monday, Ald Moyo said he enjoyed serving the city of Bulawayo for the past five years and was pursuing a second term. He, however, said there was stiff competition, with party youths calling on older members to step down and pave way for the younger generation and fresh ideas.

“My wish is to serve for another term but I don’t know if I will win this time because there are people that are challenging me. We also have youths in the party who say they’re tired of older leaders and they want to be given a chance to run the city.

“I don’t know whether I’ll succeed but my wish is to come back for another term and push for the implementation of unfinished projects so that our generation creates a tangible legacy,” said Ald Moyo.

He added that there was also stiff competition in the party for seats in the National Assembly, which made it impossible for him to contest in the Parliamentary elections.

“As a party we have structures and we have our way of selecting contestants to represent the party. There are people who have already been selected to represent the party in the Parliamentary elections and I wouldn’t stand a chance. I’ll therefore stick to the council elections and my hope is to come back and finish off what we started,” said Ald Moyo.

He said during the period 2013 and 2018, the Bulawayo City Council faced a lot of challenges which were worsened by the ailing economy.

“It has been a long and difficult journey as the city council was faced with many challenges due to the unfriendly economic environment with cash shortages and an underperforming economy.

“Other challenges were also due to stringent national policies and it’s my hope that going forward the Government will be able to create an enabling environment for business,” said Ald Moyo. — @pamelashumba1