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THE Ministry of Local Government and Public Works has dispatched a team to Tsholotsho to investigate the local authority following allegations that the Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) dominated council tried to illegally reverse the elections of committee chairpersons.
Despite being a majority in the council, councillors from the opposition party lost some of the committee chairpersonship posts to Zanu PF.
Tsholotsho Rural District Council is dominated by the CCC with 18 seats, while ZANU-PF has 11 seats.
Zanu PF councillors managed to secure the posts of committee chairpersonships for the health and social services, environment and audit while CCC got chairpersonships for the roads, human resources and area committees.
After realising that they misfired, the CCC councillors called for a special council meeting where they sought to reverse the process.
The Chronicle is in possession of correspondence written to the parent ministry by disgruntled councillors over the October 4 full council special meeting.
“It should be noted that the Tsholotsho Rural District Council held the induction for the councillors on the 23 and 24 September 2023 at the council boardroom. Then on 24 September 2023, the chief executive officer Mr Nkululeko Sibanda announced that due to the unavailability of funds it was imperative that we conduct our meeting for the purposes of electing the council chairperson and the vice chairperson as mandated by sections 45 and 63 of the RDC Act,” read the letter.
“On implementing section 63 of the RDC Act, that of the selection of council committees as per our Standing Orders, every councillor voluntarily fits into a committee of his/her own choice and that was perfectly done and blessed by the august house and minuted.”
The councillors said they were shocked when they received invitations to attend a special full council meeting on October 4.
In the letter, the councillors said they were shocked when they heard that the council committee’s selection was done improperly.
“In his opening remarks, the council chairperson Cllr Ruvas Ndlovu stated that he received a petition from other councillors complaining that the selection of councillors in the council committees was not properly done. Through his own observation, he realised that one of the standing council committees composed of Zanu PF councillors only,” reads the letter.
Some CCC councillors who spoke after the floor was opened said they did not want any Zanu PF councillors to chair committees since they were the majority.
Zanu PF councillors are said to have resisted the move which caused commotion in the council board room.
“Therefore, we the undersigned councillors, after realising that the day’s proceedings were un-procedural, then abstained from being part of the meeting proceedings and referred the house to RDC Act. However, the council chairperson, the CEO and CCC councillors went ahead and rescinded the agreement which was passed at the meeting held on the 24 September 2023,” read the letter.
“They proceeded to elect the new committee members and also went ahead to elect the committee chairpersons using the nomination process on a voluntary basis.”
The councillors want the minister to nullify the resolution passed during the meeting held on October 4, and direct that the resolution on the 24 September to stand.
Ministry of Local Government and Public Works spokesperson Mr Gabriel Masvora confirmed that the ministry’s team is in Tsholotsho over the issue.
“I can confirm that we dispatched a team to investigate after getting a complaint. The councillors formed committees and after voting later dissolved them over political differences. We are only interested in knowing if the law was followed, not the politics,” he said.
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