THERE was chaos as newly elected Harare councillors yesterday took their oath of office.
Unruly opposition CCC supporters who came to witness the
ceremony wearing party regalia sang and threw yellow balloons in the council
chambers from the gallery, interrupting the acting chamber secretary Warren
Chiwawa who presided over the proceedings together with town clerk Hosea
Chisango.
The 59 councillors were sworn in – five from Zanu PF and 40
from the CCC.
Fourteen councillors got into council through the women’s
quota system, four from Zanu PF and 10 from CCC party.
Addressing the councillors at the swearing-in Eng Chisango
said: “The first council meeting will be held on Monday and it will be
addressed by the secretary for provincial affairs and devolution for Harare
Metropolitan Province Mr Tafadzwa Muguti.”
Eng Chisango said the election of the mayor and the deputy
mayor, as per statutes will take place on Monday at the council’s first meeting
at Townhouse.
Zanu PF councillors vowed to complement President
Mnangagwa’s development agenda.
Zanu PF councillor for Ward 1 Temany Utete said he will
make sure that adequate service delivery is rendered to the residents .“My ward
is one of the worst developed wards in our constituency I am going to make sure
that I change the people’s lives. I am going to upgrade them to the standard of
our President’s Vision 2030 by making sure that council schools are built and
that safe and clean water is provided to the residents,” he said.
Another Zanu PF councillor for Ward 3 in Mbare Simbarashe
Chanachimwe said he will make sure that Mbare is restored as a clean suburb in
the city.
“As Zanu PF we do make false promises, we walk the talk. If
you look in 2018 when our President came into office a lot of developmental
projects have been and that is what I am going to emulate. Opposition leaders
have done nothing in Mbare because they are incompetent and corrupt.
“My first task is to make sure that all the refuse in Mbare
is collected, make sure that the residents are receiving clean and safe water
and repair all burst sewer pipes. We are emulating President Mnangagwa’s theme
of Vision 2030 and we are not leaving anyone in Mbare behind,” he said.
Zanu PF Sunningdale ward Women’s Quota Councillor Winnet
Nzou taking her oath of office yesterday.
Zanu PF councillor for Ward 4 in Mbare Boniface Maburutse
said he was going to make sure that Mupedzanhamo market is reopened and
Shawasha grounds is formalized for vendors to sell their wares.
When we campaigned, we did not want votes only but wanted
to make sure that Mbare becomes clean again,” he said.
“There was a lot of dirt which resulted in illegal
dumpsites everywhere while vendors were scattered everywhere selling their
wares at illegal zones. We want all vendors to stop selling in the streets by
reopening Mupedzanhamo and formalising Shawasha grounds so that they sell at
designated places.”
CCC councillor for Ward 17 Jacob Mafume said they were
thankful for the faith that the people have shown in voting them back to
office.
“What we are going to do is to intensify issues of service
delivery, issues around water, refuse collection and making sure that the
residents get value for money. We hope that there will be fewer distractions in
this new term as the last term was disrupted by recalls, arrests and many other
shenanigans that did not allow us to do service delivery,” he said.
Ward 16 CCC councillor Denford Ngadziore said: “It is true
that the elections were rigged even in my ward but I managed to win despite
that. We were not just here for the swearing-in but we asked the residents
first on the way forward and they told us to go and defend our zones of
autonomy that is why were are here.”
Meanwhile, 16 councillors including four from the 30
percent women’s quota took their oath of office and loyalty during a
swearing-in ceremony yesterday at Bindura Municipality.
This 6th Bindura municipal council saw an increase of
females in governance issues with three women being elected through the
first-past-the-post and four entering through the 30 percent quota system.
Herald
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