The hullabaloo over Ignatius Chombo’s alleged purge of former opposition party leaders running local authorities is a matter that government and the legislature appear not to take as seriously as is apparently needful.
The outcry is about the Local Government minister allegedly abusing the Urban Councils Act, which gives the minister sweeping powers to unilaterally remove from office elected officials without anyone questioning his actions, or the rationale behind them, and without providing his victims a chance to defend themselves.
Clearly, Chombo does as he pleases with local authorities and does not need to consult or consider views from even his deputy Sesel Zvidzai who, no matter how long and loud he shouts in protest, clearly cannot do anything.
All Zvidzai can do is to “declare” null and void his boss’ decisions, but at the end of the day, it is Chombo’s word that carries the day. He has been to almost all local authorities suspending and dismissing officials, while Zvidzai’s voice, full of sound and fury, echoed in his wake — continue to signifying nothing.
What the deputy minister and those that have raised issue with Chombo’s impunity should have long done was to take effectual measures to deal with the minister. They keep talking about having the Act amended, but it remains nothing but talk.
The latest casualty of Chombo’s axe is the mayor of Gwanda town, Lionel De Necker, who was last week kicked out because he refused to action the minister’s order to appoint a Zanu PF functionary to the influential position of the town’s chamber secretary.
It does not matter that as the mayor of the town, De Necker may have had his reasons to object to this partisan order — he was summarily dismissed because Chombo would not brook any resistance to his orders.
De Necker’s trouble started when, after advertising for the vacancy of chamber secretary, his council shortlisted the top three candidates whose names they forwarded to the Local Government Board as per procedure. Ordinarily, the board is supposed to pick one out of the three.
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Surprisingly, however, the board brought out their own name, one Priscilla Nkala, who had applied for the post, but failed to make it to the top three. The board ordered De Necker’s council, in the strangest of developments, to appoint this choice of theirs as the substantive chamber secretary.
As would be expected, council was dumbfounded and sent De Necker to seek clarification from Chombo in Harare. Chombo told him to ask no questions, but to simply follow the board’s and, therefore, Chombo’s directive.
The mayor went back to Gwanda and apparently council refused to be bulldozed into giving a job to somebody who had clearly failed in an interview — just because the person happens to be the minister’s political favourite.
It would be interesting to find what qualifications, experience and other attributes that this woman has.
So, Chombo — using the controversial Act — wrote to De Necker on April 4 telling him he had been suspended with immediate effect. “Following your deliberate defiance of my directive of 30 November 2011 issued in terms of Section 314 of the Urban Councils Act (Chapters 29:15), directing council to appoint Mrs P Nkala as the substantive Chamber Secretary for Gwanda Municipality as approved by the Local Government Board, I hereby, in terms of Section 114 of the afore-cited Act, suspend you from being a councillor for Gwanda Municipality with immediate effect,” Chombo wrote, adding: “You shall not be eligible to receive any form of remuneration from council.”
In similar fashion, Chombo suspended mayors from Bindura, Chinhoyi, Mutare and Rusape — all MDC-run councils. De Necker becomes his fifth victim.
Strangely, Zvidzai has each time verbally dismissed Chombo’s actions as either illegal, unconstitutional or otherwise — but at the end of the day, it is Chombo’s word that prevails.
Said Zvidzai about De Necker’s suspension: “Chombo is going wild-shooting at everyone using the Act. The guy still can’t face the reality that his Zanu PF party is no longer running the country’s urban councils . . . The dismissal is a nullity and the mayor should go back to work.”
There is no shred of doubt who wields power between Chombo and Zvidzai in Local Government and, much as the public may question the minister’s actions including allegations of corruption and his reported massive wealth, the minister will continue to make use of the Act that his office is empowered to administer until that Act is taken to Parliament where it can be sanitised.
And, until that happens, Chombo will continue to do things like paying hand-picked investigators tens of thousands of dollars to investigate a $600 corruption case as he did at Harare City Council and set up probe teams in places like Chitungwiza and Bulawayo where he forces residents of these blighted cities to pay his teams obscene amounts of money in allowances.
Chombo has been the Local Government minister for many years and, despite allegations of corruption, crude governance methods and toxic interference in local authorities, he has played his political card for Zanu PF so satisfactorily President Robert Mugabe has found no reason to question his integrity.
Chombo will rule local government until kingdom come — or at least for as long as his political party remains in power after which he can pray he is not called to account. He will continue behaving like the village idiot, the kind who would steal all the sugar from an overturned lorry and go door-to-door trying to sell it.
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