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The seat is at the moment held by Mr Roderick Rutsvara and Mr Zvidzai is reportedly eyeing the seat and is therefore preparing the ground to contest it in the next elections.
In an interview, Clr Chimombe said Mr Zvidzai who is also Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Deputy Minister in the Inclusive Government, was a desperate and divisive man who badly wanted to be in the top echelons of power so much that he revived the intra-fighting in MDC-T reminiscent of the days of the late Senator Patrick Kombayi.
He said Zvidzai was targeting the Gweru Urban seat in the forthcoming elections.
MDC-T party’s factionalism in the Midlands was and still is centred on two rival groups, the “Jatropha” which used to be led by the late Senator Kombayi and the “Masowe” faction led by Mr Zvidzai.
Clr Chimombe said the dismissals and suspensions of the six other councillors were baseless and therefore unfortunate.
He said he was the main target of the party’s decision to suspend and dismiss councillors.
“The other councillors were caught in a cross-fire. This is an issue of personal differences between me and Zvidzai. He tried to block me from being elected mayor of the city some years ago when he wrote to other councillors trying to influence them that only those aged 35 years and above should stand for the post of Mayor. The problem with Zvidzai is he has not outgrown being Mayor of Gweru.
He should start thinking and acting like a Deputy Minister whose duties are national,” he said.
Clr Chimombe said some of the charges levelled against him and his dismissed colleagues were deliberately fabricated to “arm-twist” the MDC-T national executive to act against the targeted councillors.
He said the affected councillors were never investigated by the MDC-T’s national evaluation and inspection of local authorities committee set up in April to investigate all MDC-T run councils following reports of abuse of office and corruption.
“The allegations are baseless. Zvidzai wants to bring in new councillors that can work with him when he starts campaigning for the Gweru Urban seat. There are some shadow councillors that he appointed for every urban ward. People up there, the party’s national leadership, do not know what is happening down here,” said Clr Chimombe.
“Imagine, the committee led by Mr Fidelis Mhashu never investigated any one of us, it never asked to see us and we were never brought before a hearing committee. The committee rushed to meet people in the wards and collected a report from the Sessil Zvidzai aligned residents association (GRRA). This is the same report they later presented to the party national leadership and now they come up with cooked up charges of corruption. At least the Local Government team investigated all departments and perused papers. They even had time to question us although there was no feedback of their findings.”
Clr Chimombe said Mr Zvidzai wanted Gweru councillors to snub his boss, Minister Ignatius Chombo.
“The problem is as council, we are controlled by the Urban Councils Act. Mr Zvidzai once formed an organisation to rival the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe, (UCAZ) known as DEMCOF.
He wanted us to subscribe but we refused because the organisation was partisan.
“He also recently tried to change UCAZ presidential leadership at the Masvingo conference and we resisted as mayors of different cities. UCAZ leadership, as you know, is made up of mayors.
“The problem is the Urban Councils Act says we should report to the Minister who is Dr Chombo of Zanu-PF. He now accuses us of being aligned to Zanu-PF yet we have to report to a minister and it’s not a problem that he is Zanu-PF. There is nowhere where it is stated that we should conduct our operations through a deputy minister who does not sit in Cabinet,” said Clr Chimombe.
He said Mr Zvidzai handpicked his own people for positions in the Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association (GRRA) whose members report to him regularly in a bid to oust the Chimombe-led council.
“When we came in as councillors from the MDC-T party, we were divided owing to factionalism. We, however, managed to solve our differences and destroyed the parallel structures in all the wards.
“This was achieved while we were working as a team. Things were shaping up and we were a united team in council but this did not go down well with Zvidzai,” he said.
Mr Zvidzai said it was not his habit to dwell much on sentiments expressed by non-party members.
“I can’t comment much on what that person thinks as he is no longer a member of our party.
“He can rant and rave as much as he wants because I don’t relate to non-members. I am focusing my energies on refuse collection and improving service delivery. I am getting total support from the party leadership, including the president (Morgan Tsvangirai) who is also the Prime Minister of the country,” he said.
“I bear no grudges against any member or councillor for as long as they respect the values of the party, their integrity is unquestionable. They should desist from corruption. This is why we are celebrating success stories in areas like Bulawayo, Kwekwe, Ruwa, Chinhoyi, Chegutu and Masvingo.”
He said the above mentioned cities and towns had councillors who were committed to serving the party and the people.
“There is nothing personal. We did the same in Chitungwiza in 2010, was there Chimombe in that town? We also did the same in Bindura, was he there?” said Mr Zvidzai.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter