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Elections in Harare - a pipe dream?
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
Extracted from The Resident, Issue 38
July 27, 2004

The dust has barely settled on the last attempt by Harare City Councillors to hold internal elections for the position of deputy mayor and council committee chairs. For trying to follow the legal requirements of the Urban Councils Act [Chapter 29:15], 13 councillors are fired by the partisan Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing. Press reports state that the hearing for the 13 councillors suspended by the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing were made this week with little hope of the issue being solved any time soon.

We wonder whether the Ministry will ever allow residents their legal rights to select councillors, or if the petty partisan interests of the regime will mean that council will always be a tool of ZANU -pf. Indeed, the Minister was quoted by the media as saying that councils should forget about the elections, but the question The Resident will be asking today is, until when? The Urban Councils Act [Chapter 29:15] is very clear on the legal position and yet again the regime flouts its own legislation and ignores our democratic rights. Elections for Executive Mayor should have been held by 16 June and 6 wards have been without councillors since last year.

2004 has been a write off as far as council is concerned. The incessant interference by the Minister has destroyed all attempts to turn around the capital city and our numerous problems continue to worsen day by day. The defection of councillors elected on an MDC ticket is a negation of citizen's rights. CHRA believes that any councillor who changes partisan allegience should be forced to resign and seek a new mandate from the electorate through fresh elections.

The situation ar Town House is unacceptible and reflects the contempt with which this regime regards the democratic rights of Zimbabweans. The continuing distruction of our city is overseen by the turncoat Makwavarara under instructions from the Minister and his cronies such as Jameson Kurasha who sit on a supposed Advisory Committee that is in reality an illegal commission. The Ministry of local Government, Public Works and National Housing has made no statement on Harare in the last month, and the Commission is neither visible nor accountable.

The Resident notes the lethargy affecting our city with concern. Residents should support the call for proper elections to be held within council, and solicit for the reinstatement of the 13 councillors who were suspended by the Ministry for doing something that was long overdue. It is said that we get the leaders and the government we deserve; if the apathy and indifference of residents are anything to go by, Harare residents deserve the current situation.

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