By Paul Nyathi|The ten winning Municipality of Gwanda councillors have been sworn into office by the Town Clerk of Mrs Priscilla Nkala.

The council shifted hands from ZANU PF dominance to opposition MDC Alliance at the elections held in July. The Nelson Chamisa led party garnered six of the ten wards while ZANU PF got four.

Councillor Jastone Mazhale of ward 7 is expected to be elected as the Mayor of the town when the councillors meet on Monday to conduct their elections.

Nappy Moyo of ward 2 who is the only female councillor in the town is expected to be elected as the Deputy Mayor for gender balance as directed by the MDC Alliance head office in Harare.

Rumours from within the party however indicate that there is likely going to be a huge furore within the council as some of the MDC Alliance councillors are said to be vouching for councillor Phumulo Maphala a returning councillor to be the Deputy Mayor.

If the party proceeds to thw Monday election without resolving the matter, the council stands a huge risk of seeing a ZANU PF councillor landing the Deputy Mayor position through a split vote.

Former Mayor Knowledge Ndlovu of ZANU PF who retained his council seat as ward 3 councillor is set not to retain his mayoral office and will have to face the difficulty of accepting to be an ordinary councillor against his previous subordinates.