Chinhoyi elects new mayor; targets city status by 2028

By James Muonwa l Mashonaland West Correspondent

CHINHOYI Ward 6 Councillor, Owen Charuza of Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) has been elected mayor of the farming and university town.

Charuza garnered 16 votes shrugging off a light-weight contest from Zanu PF Ward 11 Councillor, Voster Mashevedzanwa, who got a paltry four votes during Thursday’s elections held at Town House.

Chipo Mlotshwa (CCC) beat Zanu PF women’s quota Councillor Magrene Chidarikire by the same margin to become deputy mayor, a position she has held in previous years before her unceremonious recall, alongside five others, by MDC leader Douglas Mwonzora for defying him.

The poll displayed CCC leader, Nelson Chamisa, had doused factional fights that threatened to give away the mayoral seat to Zanu PF despite the new opposition party enjoying majority councillors, having 15 of the 20 available. Zanu PF has four and one is an independent.

During the elections, Charuza accepted the nomination while another CCC councillor David Malunga declined in the process other hopefuls Dyke Makumbi and Garikai Dendera were never mentioned.

The same happened when Mlotshwa emerged as the sole CCC deputy mayoral candidate.

Delivering his toned-down acceptance speech after a recent interview with NewZimbabwe.com in which he said there would be no sacred cows among non-performing employees including town clerk Maxwell Kaitano, the mayor promised to engage management as well as widely consult stakeholders in order to fulfil residents and ratepayers’ expectations.

“We have some (service delivery) challenges that don’t require resolutions but engagements amongst councillors and town clerk and his line of managers and employees for us to deliver and attain city status by 2028,” said Charuza.

“That is only possible if we execute our duties without emotions, but with true faith, transparency, dedication and in a consultative way of doing this.

“Through engagement and vigorous consultations, we will deliver and correct shortcomings we had as a council.

“We would like to make sure that as a team, moving forward, do not just look at councillors as those that can deliver. Remember there is a thin line between policy making and policy implementation. The two parties work together and either way, both parties should take blame when the other party fails to deliver… let’s find each other, let’s embrace.”

In the run-up to elections for Chinhoyi mayor, Charuza warned over poor performance and threatened to fire “stumbling blocks.”

“We have our work cut out as councillors to ensure service delivery is holistically dealt with. This is the biggest single challenge Chinhoyi faces amid failure by management to implement hundreds of resolutions passed by council,” said Charuza then.

“If politics doesn’t come into play and councillors countrywide are allowed to act according to the Urban Councils Act (UCA) chapter 29:15 subsection 139, it allows the mayor to suspend or fire the town clerk for failure to uphold his office or supervise his subordinates.”

He lamented the unkempt city park piling with garbage, ballooning workers salary arrears, dry water taps and lackadaisical work ethic at the local authority, which he says was an indicator Kaitano was incompetent.

He also took aim at the town clerk for what he termed profligacy.

“Why does he prefer to have a luxurious lifestyle when we don’t have running pumps at waterworks when we don’t have simple beds at clinics for bed rests, but somebody opts to buy a car worth US$150 000 for himself.

“Yes, those are conditions of service but you can only honour and uphold them when service is visible and tangible…at least get service delivery to 60%.

“Right now people have gone for months without water, specifically myself where l stay it has been 26 months, that’s two years and two months, no water comes out of taps.”

The new mayor also works in the technical department at the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA).