adminMidlands Correspondent
Gweru MDC-T councillors have accused Mkoba constituency Member of Parliament elect, Mr Amos Chibaya, of fanning factionalism in the city after he allegedly influenced the party’s standing committee to appoint Mr Charles Chikozho as the mayoral candidate.MDC-T, which announced it was going to impose mayors in cities that it has the majority wards has allegedly started sending names of the party’s preferred candidates for the mayoral posts.
In Gweru, the MDC-T wants Mr Chikozho, a Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) worker to take over the city’s top civil post.
Most councillors, some of whom were eyeing the same post, have been engaging in secret meetings to deliberate on the issue after it emerged that Mr Chibaya personally picked up Mr Chikozho for the top civic post.
Mr Chikozho is believed to be a close ally of Mr Chibaya, a member of the MDC-T National Standing Committee.
“We are querying the criteria used to select Mr Chikozho. The name of Mr Chikozho was just submitted to the National Standing Committee by his close ally, Mr Chibaya and we want the party to revisit the matter,” said a councillor.
The councillors said they have been having meetings to choose their preferred candidate. They said the idea to appoint Mr Chikozho has caused serious divisions within the party in the Midlands South province.
“We will not take the MDC-T’s position because there was no democracy in the manner in which they picked their candidate. He (Mr Chikozho) is a friend of Mr Chibaya. The two took advantage of Mr Chibaya’s position as a member of the standing committee,” said another councillor.
The councillors said the party was diverting from its founding principle of championing democracy.
“At least there should be some form of transparency. We claim to be a movement for democracy but if people are just hand picked, it becomes questionable,” fumed another councillor.
Mr Chibaya yesterday confirmed having recommended Mr Chikozho for the Gweru mayoral post to the standing committee.
He said the councillors who won under the MDC-T ticket should comply with the party’s directive as it was prescribed in the MDC-T declaration forms they filled when they were accepted as party candidates.
“Those councillors who are making noise should remember that they signed party declaration forms when they were accepted as party candidates and they are therefore obliged to comply with the party directive,” he said.
Mr Chibaya attacked MDC-T’s immediate past councillors who were elected into office in 2008 as a “corrupt lot”.
He said they set a wrong precedent due to their corrupt activities.
“We chose Chikozho because he is a man of good repute, a professional who has been in the party for more than five years. We don’t want a situation whereby Gweru is labelled the most rotten city because of corrupt councillors.
Instead of working for the people, the former councillors ended up stampeding for commercial and residential stands. We want people with a vision, people who are prepared to work for the masses. We don’t want a repeat of the previous council,” he said.
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