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CHRA opposes extension of commissioners' term
Augustine Mukaro, The Zimbabwe Independent
May 06, 2005

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/news/2005/May/Friday6/2288.html

PLANS by the commissioners running the City of Harare to set up business units in the capital are set to hit a brickwall as the commission’s mandate ends on June 9.

The commission, led by political turn-coat Sekesai Makwavarara, was appointed last December and should by law leave office after six months.

The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA), the umbrella body for residents associations in the capital, said the commission has no mandate to unbundle current city structures into so-called autonomous strategic business units.

CHRA chairman Mike Davies said the commission should instead be preparing for elections so that elected councillors could take the city forward.

"The commission should set dates for election," Davies said adding that, "the term for the commission is coming to an end on June 9 and there is no way the minister could extend its term. We have a precedent in the Supreme Court that a commission should be appointed for a single term.

"If (Local government minister Ignatius) Chombo extends the commission’s term, we will go to court as well as call for a full-scale rates boycott," he said.

He said turnaround plans should involve ratepayers.

"Zimbabweans are tired of grand plans imposed on them," Davis said. "We want an elected council that will engage us on its turnaround plan. The commission is an illegal entity running council on political patronage so as residents we cannot support them."

Fired mayor Engineer Elias Mudzuri, the architect of the turnaround plan which the commission hijacked, said the unbundling plans faced doom because the commission had no mandate from the residents.

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