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Harare City Council circus
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted of the Weekly Media Update 2004-22
Monday May 31st – Sunday June 6th 2004

THE government’s ongoing efforts to hound the MDC-led Harare city council out of office by directly interfering with the running of the municipality reached alarming extremes after Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo suspended 13 MDC councillors for allegedly interfering with the management of council affairs. The move followed the councillors’ decision to ignore a directive by Chombo barring them from meeting as a full council so they could elect a new deputy mayor and standing committees for the city. Similarly, the minister also suspended the MDC executive mayor of Chegutu, Francis Dhlakama, for allegedly failing to resolve the town’s problems.

But while these issues generated interest in the private media, they did not get the attention they deserved in the government media. SW Radio Africa and Studio 7 (1, 2 & 3/6), The Financial Gazette (3/6), The Standard and The Sunday Mirror (6/6), tried to put Chombo’s latest action into context, viewing it as a clear subversion of the democratic rights of the electorate that voted the councillors into office.

In fact, Chombo’s determination to undermine the democratic will of the electorate was further exposed by revelations on Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa (1/6) that he had used heavily armed riot police to forcibly evict the newly elected deputy mayor, Christopher Mushonga, from Town House. Some councillors and Mushonga’s lawyer were reportedly assaulted during the police raid.

The government-controlled media simply ignored this. Instead, The Herald subhead (2/6) "Defying government directive costly for 13…" implied that the councillors deserved the punishment. In addition, the paper, including the Chronicle of the same day, failed to question how the 13 councillors could be suspended "for interfering with the management of council affairs" when they were elected to run the council. Neither did they provide further details on the provisions of section 114 (1) of the Urban Councils Act, Chapter 29/1, from which Chombo claims to have derived his powers to suspend the councillors.

However, The Financial Gazette sourced comments from lawyers Kay Ncube, Beatrice Mtetwa and Lovemore Madhuku arguing that the councillors’ move to defy Chombo’s directive was legal. Said Mtetwa: "Chombo has been abusing the Urban Council’s Act…The minister does as he pleases with council…(Sekesai) Makwavarara was voted to that position by councillors and she can be voted out through a vote of no confidence."

Studio 7 (03/06) quoted the Combined Harare Residents Association lawyer condemning Chombo’s decision as illegal because the councillors had acted within the provisions of the Urban Councils Act.

A comment in The Standard described the suspension of Dhlakama and the 13 Harare councillors as "the latest in a series of bizarre escapades" by ZANU PF "to make it impossible for all MDC-headed local authorities to operate". It further questioned Chombo’s declaration that the suspended councillors would not be returning to Town House or contesting elections in the next 10 years saying he had "subverted the wishes of Harare ratepayers with impunity and ridden roughshod over the will of citizens elsewhere".

Meanwhile, none of the media linked Harare City Council’s poor service delivery to the incessant meddling in the management of council by government. It was not surprising therefore that the weeks-old strike by council health workers, which has crippled clinics throughout the capital, scarcely got any attention. The media failed to report the extent and effects of the industrial action. They also failed to query how, because of the suspensions, future council budgets would be formulated since only a full council can do these things.

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