adminTawanda Mangoma in Chiredzi
The Zanu-PF leadership here has rapped newly-elected ruling party councillors under Chiredzi Town Council for selling out to the opposition MDC Alliance after failing to use their numerical advantage to land the local authority chairmanship.
Zanu-PF has four councillors in Chiredzi Town while the MDC Alliance has three while the last ward is controlled by an independent candidate.
However, during elections to choose the local authority’s chair, yesterday, Councillor Gibson Hwende of MDC Alliance landed the post after garnering five votes against Clr Blessing Mazinyani (Zanu-PF) who got three votes.
This means one of the four Zanu-PF councillors sold out and voted for Clr Hwende.
Speaking after the swearing-in of the new councillors in the sugar-growing town and the subsequent election of council chair, Zanu-PF provincial secretary for Information and Publicity Cde Ronald Ndaba blasted newly-elected ruling party councillors in the town for selling out.
Cde Ndaba said it was shocking that some of the councillors in Chiredzi town saw it fit to vote for an opposition candidate. He accused such party members of not being true Zanu-PF cadres.
“This is the darkest day of my life, I have never witnessed party cadres behaving like this, they just used their money to get into party positions and yet they don’t belong to the party (Zanu-PF) but belong to themselves,” fumed Cde Ndaba.
“How can a party member vote for the opposition in an election like this one? This election was in our favour, Zanu-PF has four councillors, MDC Alliance has three and one independent candidate. The election just proved that some of us have been selling out. We know some (councillors) used their money to get into these positions in the party and they are again using it to destroy our party.”
In his inaugural speech after landing the Chiredzi Town chairmanship, Clr Hwende promised to quickly address vices such as corruption and lack of transparency in the running of council business.
These, he said, must end to restore the battered relationship between council and its residents, principally residents.
Clr Hwende said Chiredzi Town was on the threshold of a new era and called for unity if the sugar growing town was to enter on a sustainable path of development.
“It is indeed my wish to see the welfare of residents and their interests being the number one agenda for our council in the next five years. Chiredzi will never be the same, this journey which we have started needs everyone to be involved in the running of affairs of our council,” he said.
“It’s a collective approach that will make us deliver. I don’t doubt the calibre of councillors that we have, politics and politicking should now be a thing of the past. We must work together regardless of our political affiliations.”
Clr Hwende said support of stakeholders was vital to revamp service delivery in a council battling a salary backlog of almost 12 months.
“Chiredzi is going to be a very good town in terms of service delivery but this can only be achieved if all of us are involved. The Chiredzi we want starts with me, you and all of us,” he said.
The Chiredzi Town Council chair lamented rampant corruption.
“We are going to ensure that Chiredzi Town Council will be a corrupt free council. We want to try by all means to ensure that we do our council business based on trust.
We want to be responsible, accountable and open and this will close the rift between residents and council,” said Clr Hwende.
Online Reporter