‘Kasukuwere cannot fire Harare mayor’

HARARE – The ruling Zanu PF party has absolutely no lawful authority to dethrone any urban council mayor or councillor, Morgan Tsvangirai’s opposition MDC has said.

This comes as new Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere has threatened to fire the MDC Mayor of Harare Bernard Manyenyeni and his MDC councillors from office and instead allow the government to appoint commissions headed by chief executive officers to run the city.

Kasukuwere said the MDC-run council has failed to deal with a growing vendor menace.

“If Manyenyeni and others are not up to the task, we will find a way to ensure that we have a city that runs and don’t blame it on President Mugabe when that happens,” Kasukuwere was quoted recently.

“Councils must shape up or ship out. If the council does not clean the town, I will clean the Town House.”

The ruling Zanu PF party, which has absolute control of Parliament and can pass any laws it so wishes, has repeatedly lost all elections in major cities to the opposition MDC party since the opposition party was formed 15 years ago.

The MDC said Kasukuwere’s Zanu PF was seeking to regain control in the capital Harare by dismissing the elected councils and appointing pro-Zanu PF commissioners to run the city.

“The long and short of it is that Saviour Kasukuwere has absolutely no lawful authority to dismiss any mayor and councillor simply because they have refused to obey Zanu PF’s unlawful orders to forcibly remove vendors from the streets,” Obert Gutu, the MDC spokesperson said yesterday.

“Indeed, Section 278 of the Constitution clearly sets out the procedure that has to be followed before any mayor or councillor is removed from office. Put simply, an independent tribunal must be established to exercise the function of removing from office mayors, chairpersons and councillors, but such removal must only be on the grounds of inability to perform the functions of their office due to mental or physical incapacity, gross incompetence, gross misconduct, conviction of an offence involving dishonesty, corruption or abuse of office or wilful violation of the law.”

Gutu said the scourge of vending was a direct creation of the Zanu PF regime.

“Because of its ruinous, corrupt and irresponsible system of governance, this regime has run down the Zimbabwean economy over the years and in the process, thousands of workers have been thrown onto the streets as factories and industries continue to close on a daily basis,” Gutu said.

“The MDC calls upon the Zanu PF regime to immediately desist from adopting heavy — handed and unlawful methods of dealing with the vending crisis in Harare as well as in all the other cities, towns and growth points in the country. We shall not accept a situation whereby the Zanu PF regime unleashes its security operatives to ruthlessly clamp down on vendors; beating them up, arresting them and also destroying their merchandise.” Daily News