adminMidlands Correspondent
GWERU residents yesterday blasted MDC-T for threatening to dismiss the city’s new mayor, Councillor Hamutendi Kombayi, his deputy, Clr Artwell Matyorauta and eight other councillors describing the move as ”retrogressive”.They said the MDC-T Midlands South provincial executive’s decision to fire the Gweru mayor and nine of his councillors, will impact negatively on service delivery.
In an interview yesterday, Gweru Residents and Rate payers Association (GRRA) chairperson, Mr Cornelius Selipiwe said residents were expecting the newly elected councillors to have started working on improving service delivery
He said the imminent expulsion of the 10 councillors would condemn the residents to more months of continued poor service delivery.
“Gweru residents have endured years of poor service delivery with some suburbs going for years without water. There is therefore an urgent need to address such issues like erratic water supplies and poor road network. We want the newly elected councillors to be on the ground addressing our concerns,” he said.
Mr Selipiwe said the firing of newly elected councillors would put everything to a halt with aspiring candidates going back to the people to seek votes.
He appealed to MDC-T to put its house in order and deal with the “rebels” in a manner that would not affect the electorate.
“Its not in dispute that councillors belong to political parties and that they should comply with their respective parties’ directives. We, however, become worried if political parties fail to rein in their people thereby forcing the parties to take action that adversely affect innocent residents. There is therefore need to put to an end these political fights and concentrate on service delivery,” said Mr Selipiwe.
He said residents expected MDC-T to quickly address the discord within its ranks and concentrate on improving service delivery.
“It is our prayer as rate payers that these political squabbles are put to an end so that we focus on taking our city forward,” said Mr Selipiwe.
MDC-T Midlands South provincial spokesperson Mr James Tsuro on Sunday announced that the provincial executive recommended the expulsion from the party of 10 Gweru councillors including Clr Kombayi after they rejected the party’s preferred candidate for the mayoral post during last week’s mayoral elections.
The MDC-T’s position was that Clr Charles Chikozho (Ward 14) would be elected mayor while Clr Kenneth Sithole (Ward Four) would become his deputy.
The councillors who are likely to face the axe are Clr Bonface Magidi (Ward 18), Clr Nokuthuka Mbano (Ward Three), Tawanda Magidi (Ward 16) Clr Ernest Guduza (Ward 14), Clr Willard Ndaguta (Ward Eight), Clr Farai Muza (Ward 17), Clr Albert Chirawu (Ward 11) and Moses Marecha of Ward Five.
The provincial executive is waiting for the MDC-T national executive to endorse or reject its resolution to fire the councillors.
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