adminAddressing councillors at a full council meeting yesterday evening in the council chambers, Clr Moyo said deputy mayor Clr Amen Mpofu was not responsible for moving the motion that nearly split the MDC-T-run council into two camps, but instead said it was Ward 6 councillor, Jennifer Bent. “To say that the Deputy Mayor is the one who put the motion pushing for the rotation of chairpersons is not correct, we need to set the record straight,” said Clr Moyo.
On the tender row that Clr Mpofu was fingered in, Clr Moyo said allegations levelled against his deputy were baseless, as the tendering process was going on smoothly.
“As far as the city council is concerned the tender issue is going on very well. In fact it does not link the deputy mayor in any wrong doing,” said Clr Moyo.
Clr Mpofu was being accused by the councillors of misconduct and meddling in the council’s tendering process and had called for the local authority to investigate him.
He was implicated in the recent parking system tender row that saw Easipark, one of the tendering companies, being given tender application forms despite having failed to attend a compulsory tender briefing meeting.
Adding to what the mayor said, Clr Mpofu said there was no need for councillors to publicly discredit themselves, especially in the face of their enemies.
“Surely there is no need to speak about our in-house weaknesses in public, this does not fare well for this local authority, we are better than that. “In any case we should admit that we are not perfect
and this does not need to be exposed in public,” said Clr Mpofu.
The comments by the mayor come barely a week after the war over the influential chairpersonship posts among Bulawayo councillors nearly split the MDC-T led council into two factions.
The councillors were on the warpath after their counterparts, who chair the five standing committees in the city, allegedly repeatedly resisted attempts to hold annual elections that could see them losing their positions.
It was also reported that it was the mayor and members of the General Purposes Committee who were allegedly against holding elections.
The five chairpersons make up the influential General Purposes Committee, whose chairperson is the mayor, Clr Moyo.
The posts come with attractive perks that include all expenses paid trips anywhere in the world on council business. They also have the added attraction of travel and subsistence allowances. The councillors, however, had vowed to ensure that the issue would be on the agenda at yesterday’s full council convention, but to no avail.
It is understood that it is not the first time that the proposal had been scrapped from the agenda and that the elections had never been held in Bulawayo, since the present crop of councillors assumed office in 2008.
Online Reporter