Back to Index

Head of illegal commission running Harare suspends town clerk
Tererai Karimakwenda, SW Radio Africa
June 29, 2006

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news290606/harare290606.htm

Former councillor for Mabvuku, Sekesayi Makwavarara who has headed the illegal Commission running the capital since 2004, has suspended town clerk Nomutsa Chideya. Reports say this was due to a wide range of allegations, including incompetence and failure to manage department heads. According to the Herald, Makwavarara unilaterally centralised all powers on herself last week and banned Chideya from holding any meetings without her permission. But Chideya reportedly defied the directive and met with heads of department on Tuesday. He also threatened to sue Makwavarara for interfering with his duties.

For Mike Davies, chairman of the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA), the affairs of what he calls "this gang of thieves" running Harare are not important. His aim is to make Harare residents realise that they don’t have to support this illegal commission financially. As he put it: "Do not fund your own oppression." CHRA has advocated a rates boycott for years now as service delivery deteriorated while the council increased rates drastically. Davies said Makwavarara is a puppet of local government minister Ignatius Chombo and was appointed by him to head the commission and do his bidding. He added that there is no accounting of how much is collected from Harare residents and where it goes. But it is known that a lot of the revenue is channelled to the ruling party.

Davies told us there has not been an audit of the capital’s accounts since 2001. He said it is estimated that about Z$500 billion is collected from residents every month. Davies said there is a ZANU-PF patronage scheme which awards contracts for goods and services to companies affiliated with the ruling party.

Davies does not believe that the rates boycott that CHRA is calling for will solve all of Harare’s problems.

But he said that it would show residents that they have power to change things and deprive the commission and ruling party of a lot of money. He added: "This is the difference between a citizen and a subject. A citizen takes control and has power. Subjects stay quiet and put up with the lack of service delivery and inflated rates."

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP