|
Executive Mayors to be scrapped
By Lance Guma
08 January 2006
The government is set to scrap the position of elected Executive Mayors from all urban councils and replace them with their own Chief Executive Officers. Precious Shumba, Information Officer for the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA), says government is set to implement recommendations by a ‘turn-around’ committee led by Chester Mhende.
The government has realised it cannot win mayoral elections so is going to make the position one based on appointment. This is already the case with several commissions running Harare, Mutare, and very soon Chitungwiza. Losing Zanu PF candidates in local government polls are usually accommodated in the makeshift commissions that are mostly meant to subvert the wishes of the residents who voted for their own mayor and councillors.
Shumba accused the illegal commission running Harare of trying to sneak in a new budget for the city without consulting residents. The 9 th of January is the legal deadline for residents to launch any objections to the budget but 3 days before that date, no one has yet seen the budget. The only item they have been alerted to is the increase in cemetery and medical fees but residents do not know the contents of the budget.
Shumba also described the banning of tuck shops by the commission running Harare as an arbitrary decision that had no force in law. Tuck shop owners have been in business for years and were even paying rates to the council. It was a contradiction for the same council to turn around and say tuck shops are illegal. He stressed that this was the symptom of having unelected leaders who merely pander to the whims of those who appointed them. |