HARARE residents have vowed to fight any attempts to fire Harare mayor Bernard Manyenyeni, who was suspended by Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
This comes as Sunday marks the end of the 45 days in which an independent tribunal must have been appointed to look into Manyenyeni’s removal from office by Kasukuwere, according to the Constitution.
Residents feel Kasukuwere now wants to legalise his move to fire the Harare mayor through crafting of the Local Government Laws Amendment Bill, which will soon be before Parliament when it resumes sitting on Tuesday.
Combined Harare Residents Association chairperson, Simba Moyo on Thursday evening, during a public discussion on the Bill, attended by several residents’ associations, said they had begun a Ready For My Mayor campaign, where residents will push for Manyenyeni’s reinstatement, as they feel he was illegally removed for political reasons.
“From tomorrow (last Friday), as residents, we will begin our ready for the mayor campaign, and it will be on social media platforms like Facebook, as well as in the form of demonstrations,” he said.
“We want our mayor back at work on Sunday,” he said.
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The Constitution says mayors and councillors can only be removed after the setting of an independent tribunal to look at the grounds of issues pertaining to their removal.
Section 278(2) of the Constitution reads: “An Act of Parliament must provide for the establishment of an independent tribunal to exercise the function of removing from office mayors, chairpersons and councillors, but any such removal must only be on the grounds of (a) inability to perform the functions of their office due to mental or physical incapacity, (b) gross incompetence, (c) gross misconduct, (d) conviction of an offence involving dishonesty, corruption or abuse of office, (e) wilful violation of the law, including a local authority by-law.
The law also requires that the tribunal must be appointed within 45 days of suspension.
Harare residents said they felt Kasukuwere had rushed to bring the Local Government Laws Amendment Bill (2016) to align some provisions of the Rural District Councils Act and the Urban Councils Act with section 278(2) and (3) of the Constitution in order to legally remove Gweru and Harare mayors whom he has already suspended.
Chitungwiza Residents Trust (Chitrest) director, Marvellous Kumalo said people must reject the Bill and removal of their mayors, as these were fights of political parties who wanted control of the cities in preparation of the 2018 elections.
“When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. In this case, Zanu PF is bringing this law in order to deal with MDC-T led councils, while service delivery will suffer. Residents must refuse appointed commissions in cities because the issue here is about control of cities as we approach the 2018 general elections. We know that whenever elections are near carrots are dangled as vote buying and this time Zanu PF wants to dish out land to youths that will be used to force thousands of people to vote for them,” he claimed.
Kumalo said the appointment of Zanu PF political commissar, Kasukuwere as Local Government minister last September was not by accident, as he is supposed to ensure all cities were controlled by the party.
“He was ordered by Mugabe to fire all those mayors, and now he wants to fire the Chitungwiza and Bulawayo city councils. On May 9, Kasukuwere gazetted the Local Government Laws Amendment Bill so that they ensure they use it to fire MDC-T controlled councils. Right now there is no legislation to support the firing of Harare mayor Manyenyeni, and that is why they want to create the law to create an independent tribunal to fire him. That is the pressure they are trying to contain through this proposed Bill,” he said, adding that residents must vehemently reject it, as everything was happening at the expense of dealing with service delivery in cities.
Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development northern region chairperson, Tendai Muchada said since 2003, when Ignatius Chombo was Local Government minister, there had been a trend of firing opposition parties mayors by Zanu PF.
“We are saying we do not want commissions to run our cities as residents. We do not want interference in choosing the suitable candidate for town clerk, because after James Mushore was appointed, Kasukuwere interfered, saying the names should have gone to the Local Government Board. However, the minister knows that we are now in a new constitutional dispensation.
“As residents we see this as a battle between Zanu PF and MDC-T and it has nothing to do with Mushore as a candidate,” he said.
Constitutional lawyer and National Constitutional Assembly leader Lovemore Madhuku attacked the Constitution for unfairly including procedures to fire mayors and councillors when it was silent on firing of the President and MPs on the same grounds stipulated for councillors.
He also lambasted the manner in which the minister is allowed to appoint the tribunal’s chairperson, as well as the role to be played by the Judicial Service Commission in appointing two members to sit on the independent tribunal.
“There is no independent panel to remove the President or MPs, but mayors and councillors are removed. The Minister will appoint the chairperson of the independent tribunal from nine lawyers, and who says they will be independent and not play politics? I do not know why the Constitution says judges from the Judicial Services Commission should be involved because if one wants to challenge the appointments through the courts then what happens? The Constitution has very serious weaknesses, and now the Bill will pass because Zanu PF has a majority in Parliament. There are also enough G40 MPs to pass Kasukuwere’s Bill,” he said.
Harare West MP, Jessie Majome (MDC-T) had no kind words for Kasukuwere’s Bill, describing it as “an insult to Parliament and the people of Zimbabwe”.
Majome has since started circulating a petition titled Minister Hands off Harare in a bid to stop Kasukuwere from wantonly removing mayors.
Starting today, Parliament will hold public hearings on the Bill to gather views from people in different areas.
