The accusations follow the election of Zanu PF councillors,
Elvis Nkomo and Bongani Dube as chairperson and deputy chairperson,
respectively, on Tuesday.
CCC councilors alleged that before the election the DDC,
Matilda Mlotshwa and CEO Silibele Mpofu held a ‘secret meeting’ to make sure
that a Zanu PF councilor was appointed chairperson.
Zanu PF has 19 councillors in the RDC while CCC has 17 and
MDC-T has two.
In an interview with CITE following the election on
Tuesday, CCC councillor Modias Fuzane, who was nominated as chairperson,
alleged he was cheated.
“The DDC was chairing the election but connived with the
CEO and other staff members. The election was by secret ballot and after
voting, the DDC announced the winner and put the ballot papers aside. I wanted
to verify the ballots, but I erred in making my intentions known because we
were dismissed during the verification exercise to go to our committees,”
Fuzane claimed.
Fuzane alleged the CEO also went and stood in front of
them, forming a barrier to prevent them from witnessing what the DDC was doing
with other staffers.
“I suspected something was amiss and I stood up to see the
DDC quickly exchanging papers with a council staffer. That is how I was
cheated,” claimed the councillor.
Fuzane indicated he was confident he would win more than 20
votes, however once the results were released, he received 18 votes while Nkomo
had 20.
“The possible result was a tie, which is 19. I was sitting
next to a councillor from Zanu PF who voted for me and I saw that,” he claimed.
CCC councilors alleged that before the election the DDC and
the CEO held a ‘secret meeting’ to make sure that a Zanu PF councilor was
appointed chairperson.
“The DDC and CEO are staunch Zanu PF supporters. They also
told us that interested candidates for chairperson must submit CVs. The two
even called their Zanu councillors and had a secret meeting from 9 pm to 11pm,”
alleged some of the CCC councillors who had an induction event at Nyathi
training Centre on Monday.
“Although Zanu PF has 19 councillors, CCC entered into an
agreement with MDC-T, which has two councillors to combine votes, therefore we
also had 19 councillors. Zanu has 11 councilors who were elected first past the
post in Nkayi North, three in Nkayi South, CCC has 11 in Nkayi South and two in
Nkayi North, and MDC-T has one. The remainder fell under proportional
representation.”
CCC councillors also stated that because Nkayi was divided
into North and South, the chairperson was expected to be from the South this
time.
“The council chairperson was elected from Nkayi North in
2018, and there was an inside verbal agreement to have a chairperson from Nkayi
South after the 2023 elections. However, Zanu PF councilors from Nkayi North
rejected this, arguing the council chair cannot come from Nkayi South because
Zanu PF only has three councillors there,” said the councillors.
“The Zanu PF councillors were afraid that since CCC has more
councillors in Nkayi South they will lose the chairmanship position. This is
why the DDC and CEO were acting funny, receiving instructions from elsewhere to
manage those squabbles.”
When contacted for a comment, Nkayi DDC Matilda Mlotshwa
curtly said the elections “went well” and hastened that she “does not talk to
journalists about such because the spokesperson of council is the CEO.”
Nkayi CEO, Silibele Mpofu also concurred the elections went
well and that vote was by secret ballot.
He however dismissed the allegations raised by CCC
councillors saying he was not privy to that.
“Parties are tricky, whenever there is an election people
will always caucus as political parties. That is an obvious thing to come up
with how best to elect their candidates,” Mpofu said.
Mpofu also said he could not respond about the arrangement
because he had not joined council in 2018.
“I only came in last year, I also heard there was something
like that but as CEO my role is to swear in councilors. The election to choose
the council chair is presided over by the DDC and I work with what I have been
given by the voters,” said the CEO.
“Political parties have their own arrangements on how to
handle issues, I’m not privy to that and I don’t want to know what they are
planning on because I work with what I have been given.”
In 2021 Nkayi residents called for the abolition of the
DDC’s office formerly known as District Administrator (DA) amid concerns that
persons occupying the office were used by the ruling Zanu PF party to stifle
development and that the post was inherited from the colonial system to
suppress people’s freedoms. CITE
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