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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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