Business Times
Harare Mayor Herbert Gomba and five other councillors are fighting to stay in office and have engaged lawyers to challenge their proposed recall.
Last week, MDC-T secretary general Douglas Mwonzora wrote a letter to Local Government minister July Moyo informing that his party wanted to recall the councillors.
Among the councillors to be recalled include Gilbert Hadebe and Kudzai Kadzombe, among others.
Mwonzora argued that the six councillors had been seconded to the Town House on MDC-T ticket and had also contested for municipal elections with the blessing of the party.
Gomba and his colleagues have engaged the services of lawyers seeking to reverse the decision.
“The matter is now being handled by our lawyers who are going to be challenging the decision by Mwonzora and his party for recalling us,” Gomba said.
“This is part of the political fighting in the MDC party caused by Khupe who has joined up with Zanu PF to fight me and the councillors coming up with false charges against us in council.”
The recall of the six councillors comes after four other councillors — Denford Ngadziore (Ward 16), Girisoti Mandere (Ward 44), Jaison Kautsa (Ward 37) and Tonderai Chakeredza (Ward 31) — were relieved of their duties last month.
Mwonzora said his party led by Thokozani Khupe had decided to recall Gomba and the councillors as they were showing signs of insubordination to the party leadership.
He said the recalled councillors were also facing allegations of criminal abuse of office and corruption and were currently out on bail.
MDC-T has been recalling legislators and councillors since the Supreme Court gave Thokozani Khupe the reins over the party in an acting capacity pending the holding of an extraordinary congress.
The Supreme Court restored the 2014 structures in MDC saying Nelson Chamisa’s ascendancy to the VP’s post was irregular.
Chamisa who took over the reins as leader of the country’s biggest opposition party following the death of founder Morgan Tsvangirai argues that he is the leader of the MDC Alliance and not MDC-T.
This, however, did not stop the recall of legislators and councillors by Khupe. MDC Alliance dominates Harare with 45 councillors while Zanu PF has a sole representative. Harare has 46 councillors and one for Zanu PF.
The 45 MDC Alliance councillors include Barnabas Ndira, Ian Makone and Jacob Mafume.
Makone and Mafume are MDC Alliance’s secretary for elections and deputy secretary for Local Government Affairs respectively.
Some of the councillors who have joined MDC -T in Harare Province include Lovemore Mukunguma and Brian Matione.
Mafume said all the councillors were rallying behind Gomba and the other councillors.
“We know that this is part of the plan to weaken our party led by leader Nelson Chamisa the mayor and councillors were elected by the people to lead them in their wards,” he said.