By Staff Reporter
MDC-T President Douglas Mwonzora has engaged Local Government Minister July Moyo in a bid to deal with the situation at Harare City Council where both Mayor and Town Clerk were suspended.
Mwonzora said he had highlighted to Moyo how his decision to suspend Mayor Jacob Mafume and Town Clerk Hosiah Chisango was “a recipe for disaster” despite the two facing numerous counts of corruption.
Speaking to journalists at his Morgan Tsvangirai House headquarters, Mwonzora said Moyo has since promised to deal with the matters.
“Right now in Harare we do not have a substantive mayor, he is not attending to council business because he is on remand and one of the bail conditions he has is that he should not come to town house, he was also suspended by the Minister of Local Government” said Mwonzora.
“Our choice for Deputy Mayor, Luckson Mukunguma again has been suspended by the Minister of Local Government and is unable to attend business at Town House.
“We have an acting Mayor, Mr. Stewart Mutizwa and we also have an acting Town Clerk, so the substantive Town Clerk and substantive Mayor are all on suspension.
“I have had a meeting with July Moyo where I pointed out some of these things and the corrective measures that we are going to be taking as a party.
“We did discuss his suspension of the Mayor of Harare, Mafume and the deputy Mayor and I did inquire from the minister whether he understood it was affecting service delivery and also the suspension of the Town Clerk.
Mwonzora said the situation almost went out of hand last year when Moyo suspended both the mayor and town clerk leaving a vacuum of leadership that meant the capital went for a period without the two offices being occupied.
Added Mwonzora: “I was bringing this to the attention of the minister that by his administrative action he had caused that state of affairs and he assured me they were going to expedite the cases.”
Chisango was arrested and granted $50 000 bail last September on allegations of having illegally sold council’s residential stands before being arrested and released again this January.
Mafume was only released this year after almost a month in remand prison.
Mwonzora called on government to quicken the pace with which it is implementing Devolution and also consider making the capital’s top office executive.
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