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Temba Dube and Mashudu Netsianda Senior Reporters
BULAWAYO councillors on Tuesday openly defied the party’s provincial executive on its choice for the city’s deputy mayor, setting the stage for an explosive meeting scheduled for today where party leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai is expected to address the province on the issue.
At a caucus meeting reportedly held in Luveve, which is said to have been attended by more than 20 of the 29 winning candidates in the Bulawayo local authority elections, the candidates openly rejected Mr Gift Banda for the deputy mayor’s post.
MDC-T provincial bigwigs, the organising secretary Mr Albert Mhlanga and the secretary Mr Reggie Moyo reportedly attended the meeting.
Officials at the party said the meeting got off to a confrontational start with the winning candidates demanding to know why the party’s deputy president, Ms Thokozani Khupe wanted to impose Mr Banda.
“The councillors said Sheila Musonda who won in Ward 8 was going around telling them that Ms Khupe had said they should vote for Gift for the post of Deputy Mayor. They said Ms Khupe was demeaning herself and her position in the party by meddling in issues that were supposed to be attended to by juniors,” said the official.
The winning candidates reportedly said they did not want Mr Banda in the position because he was new in the party and was using his wealth “to buy” the position.
Another official said Mr Mhlanga “diplomatically” cooled tempers by saying the councillors had misunderstood Ms Khupe.
“Ms Khupe said Mr Banda had approached her seeking assistance to get the position and she told him to approach the councillors to get their support,” said the official.
A comment could not be obtained from Mr Mhlanga and the provincial chairperson Mr Gorden Moyo as they could not be reached on their mobile phones.
However, the party’s spokesperson for Bulawayo province, Mr Mandla Sibanda said the meeting was illegal.
“We have well furnished offices with a big boardroom for meetings. As a party we are not aware of such a meeting. It is a Luveve meeting, not an MDC-T meeting,” said Mr Sibanda.
He said Mr Tsvangirai was not coming to Bulawayo to talk about mayoral positions.
“He is coming to meet the party’s winning candidates and will later meet Bulawayo residents at the Large City Hall. He will not be addressing anyone, but will be exchanging ideas with party members. It is too early for us to be talking about mayoral posts,” said Mr Sibanda.
MDC-T has reportedly earmarked National University of Science and Technology (Nust) lecturer Dr Mandla Nyathi for the post of Bulawayo Mayor.
The party won in all 29 council wards in the city.
Meanwhile, yesterday legal experts said the party with the highest number of National Assembly seats in a particular province can nominate a non-executive mayoral candidate outside the elected councillors.
According to legal experts while the party could nominate any candidate for the non-executive mayoral position, only elected councillors are allowed to vote that person to become a mayor at their first sitting.
Copac co-chairperson Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, said according to the Urban Councils Act, a mayor is elected by councillors.
“He does not necessarily have to be a councillor, but can be any person nominated by the party. It is different from the rural district councils where the person has to be one of the elected councilors,” he said.
A Bulawayo based lawyer Mr Matshobana Ncube said the election of the mayor must be done at the first sitting of council following a general election.
“A mayoral candidate should be elected at the first sitting of council by fellow councillors but the amended Urban Councils Act allows these people to also elect an outsider for the mayoral post as long as that person gets a sufficient number of votes,” said Mr Ncube.
Mr Ncube cited the 2008 case that saw Harare councillors elect an outsider, Mr Muchadeyi Masunda, as the city’s mayor.
Mr Ncube said according to the provisions of Section 103 (1) of the Urban Councils Act, a deputy mayor is the one who should be strictly elected from the councillors.
Mr Chris Mhike of Atherstone and Cook Legal Practitioners said the election of mayors and chairpersons of local authorities in Zimbabwe proceeds in terms of the Urban Councils Act and the Rural District Councils Act, both of them as read with the new Constitution.
“In terms of these statutes, there can be two types of local government heads: non-executive mayors and chairpersons, and executive mayors and chairpersons. In the case of executive mayors and chairpersons, and in terms of Section 274 of the Constitution, an Act of Parliament may confer executive powers on the mayor or chairperson of an urban local authority. But any executive mayor or executive chairperson must be elected directly by registered voters in the area for which the local authority has been established,” he said.
Mr Mhike said in the case of a non-executive mayor and non-executive chairperson, the mayor shall be the person preferred or elected by councillors of a subject local authority at the first sitting of the council following a general election.
He said in respect of non-executive mayors and chairpersons, there was no specific provision in the statutes on the need for the elected person to be one of the elected councillors.
“The requirement for the mayor or chairperson of a local authority to be an elected official relates only to executive office,” he said.
Harare lawyer and outgoing Deputy Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Mr Obert Gutu has been chosen by MDC-T to become the new mayor of Harare for the next five years. He will be deputised by Kambuzuma councillor elect, Mr Thomas Muzuva, who was nominated for the post by the MDC-T.
The new Constitution abolished the office of provincial governors, who were presidential appointees thus part of the national Government, although they sat with an advisory council made up of the chairpersons of the urban and rural councils in their provinces.
In their place as the “face” of a province would become the chairpersons of the provincial and metropolitan councils, who would be elected and whose councils would be far more high-powered.
Harare and Bulawayo would have a provincial structure although this would be different in several ways from the structure of the other eight non-metropolitan provinces.
The chairperson of a provincial council is elected by the full council. But the party that obtained the most National Assembly seats in that province nominates at least two qualified candidates from which the full council chooses one.
Should two parties tie for the same top number of seats, then the one with the most votes provide the candidates.
Zanu-PF would thus be the nominating party for the first chairpersons of all eight provincial councils.
The two metropolitan councils have a slightly different make-up.
All members of the National Assembly from that province plus the six women members plus the six senators are members of the metropolitan council.
They are joined by the mayor and his or her deputy or the chairperson and deputy chairperson of any local authority within that province.
There are no extra councillors and obviously no senator chiefs in such councils.
The chairpersons of the Bulawayo or Harare Metropolitan Councils would become mayors of the two cities respectively, with the chairperson of the next largest council in the province as the deputy mayor.
For both Bulawayo and Harare the MDC-T has a majority of councillors and thus that party would presumably elect the mayor, who does not have to be a city councillor, and who would then by virtue of office be chairperson of the metropolitan council.
Online Reporter