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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Correspondent
TRIBAL tensions have erupted in the MDC Alliance amid reports that the coalition leader Mr Nelson Chamisa wants to impose candidates to be appointed as Bulawayo Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
Bulawayo is set to have a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor following last week’s harmonised elections.
Former Mayor Alderman Martin Moyo, who was contesting as an independent candidate, lost the polls while ex-deputy Mayor Gift Banda was elected as the Njube-Lobengula legislator.
Sources within the MDC Alliance said Mr Chamisa handpicked Ward 20 councillor Earnest Rafomoyo to be city’s Mayor and will be deputised by Ward Three councillor Tinashe Kambarami.
However, Mr Chamisa’s decision to handpick the pair has reportedly thrown the party into turmoil as the provincial leadership is resisting the appointments.
“We were shocked to learn that the party’s president Mr Chamisa is trying to impose Rafomoyo and Kambarami to be the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor in Bulawayo. It will be an insult to the people of Bulawayo to have a Mayor who is not originally from Bulawayo,” said a party source.
“You can track the identities of previous Mayors the city has ever had. All of them were local people whose identities have never raised eyebrows among the city’s residents. We can be accused of being tribal but Bulawayo cannot have a person with a Shona identity being the Mayor or Deputy Mayor in Bulawayo.
Inkomo ingazala umuntu (its impossible).
Bulawayo has its culture and if these individuals are imposed on the city it can spell calamity for the city and the MDC-T in the region in future elections.”
The source said the duo had since been asked to present their curriculum vitaes to the party.
Mr Chamisa, the source further revealed, is seemingly repaying the duo for being loyal to him when he was contesting the party’s secretary general post which he eventually lost to Mr Douglas Mwonzora years back.
Another source said both Clr Rafomoyo and Clr Kambarami have no capacity to push the city’s developmental agenda as devolution of power will be implemented.
The source said no one in the party wants to speak openly on the matter as most of them are afraid that Mr Chamisa’s cronies could use their proximity to the party leader to push them out.
MDC-T provincial chairman Mr Banda said he was not aware of the developments.
“As a party we are busy with the national issue where we are contesting the presidential election which we believe was stolen from us. I’m not aware of what you are talking about,” he said.
Mr Chamisa’s spokesperson Dr Nkululeko Sibanda said his boss was preoccupied with “national issues” and it was highly unlikely that he could have made the decision.
He promised to engage Mr Chamisa before commenting broadly on the issue but efforts to get him later were fruitless as he was no longer reachable on his cell phone.
@nqotshili
Online Reporter