The MDC-T has threatened to take legal action following revelations Local Government, Urban and Rural Development minister Ignatius Chombo appointed top Zanu PF officials as Chitungwiza special interest councillors.
The appointments followed the decision by a resuscitation team appointed by Chombo to run the affairs of the Chitungwiza Municipality to fire two special interest councillors last week.
The minister appointed Zanu PF central committee members Joseph Macheka, Tsitsi Jadagu and Innocent Hamandishe, district coordinating committee (DCC) chairperson Wilfred Gwekwete and Zanu PF shadow MP for Zengeza East Victor Mambondiani, who is also a DCC member.
Chombo has defended the appointment of the Zanu PF officials saying they had the requisite skills to turn the municipality around.
If the person can assist the council, then what is the problem?
They just advise the councillors because they have a special skill and if someone was a councillor for 28 years, he knows, he claimed.
That has nothing to do with party politics, but skill and capacity.
But MDC-T provincial chairperson for Chitungwiza Alexio Musundire said although Chombo was empowered by the Urban Councils Act to appoint special interest councillors, he must not be partisan.
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As MDC Chitungwiza Province, we will not accept the appointments of these controversial political actors and will soon approach the courts for remedial purposes, Musundire said.
The Act has for long been used and misused by the minister to subvert the political process by rewarding Zanu PF and depriving the public.
They (the appointees) are all members of Zanu PF and the majority of them have contested for various public offices and have dismally lost, he added.
Chombo has been accused of using his powers to try and reverse MDC electoral gains after the two formations wrested control of almost all urban centres from Zanu PF.
