Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Chombo's urban 'purge' goes unchecked
Kumbirai Mafunda,The Financial Gazette
Janaury 11, 2006

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=504

TO some Zimbabweans Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo never ceases to amaze but to others he has long become an agent of a serious war of attrition through his brazen crusade against opposition-run municipalities.

If stricken Israeli leader Ariel Sharon could be described as "the bulldozer" for razing Palestinian homes, then Chombo may not be far from qualifying for the same label, not only for commanding the demolition of people’s dwellings after the March elections, but for a great deal more.

Last year’s razing of urban dwellings and informal traders’ stalls — which left close to 700 000 people without a roof over their heads and has unnecessarily attracted international concern — provoked the inference. Chombo’s ministry headed the clean-up campaign, dubbed Operation Murambatsvina, which the government tried to sell as a beautification campaign.

But the chaotic exercise has cost many Zimbabweans a decent living. And just before Zimbabweans could come out of the shock of the demolitions and before they could finish picking up the pieces, the local government minister is once again jarring nerves in major cities dominated by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and Chitungwiza.

"It is a very clear sign that Chombo is out to drive the MDC out of local governance be it in urban or rural areas," says John Makumbe, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.

"His objective is to have nothing under MDC governance and therefore, reduce the space under the jurisdiction of the MDC," he adds.

Just four days after Christmas, Chombo dismantled the MDC-dominated Mutare City Council by suspending executive mayor Misheck Kagurabadza and all the councillors. Almost at the same time, he suspended Chitungwiza executive mayor Misheck Shoko.

Their offence was "non-compliance with orders and ill discipline."

This effectively means that all the time and resources committed by the residents of Chitungwiza and Mutare towards choosing their own representatives have gone to waste.

Chombo considers the voters to have made an erroneous selection.

Observers say whoever coined the adage "make hay while the sun shines" could have had the minister in mind, as he appears to be exploiting the current infighting that is rocking the country’s main opposition party.

The MDC leadership is currently preoccupied with retaining control of the once formidable party after a camp led by secretary-general Welshman Ncube broke ranks with the party’s popular leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, over last year’s senate elections.

This, critics say, has emboldened Chombo to wield his axe on the remaining vestiges of MDC local authorities while the bickering, which has significantly weakened the party, rages on.

"Chombo knows that neither of the two factions has either the will or the time and resources to challenge him," observes Makumbe.

"They (the MDC) are busy with frivolous issues and they are actually seeing each other as enemies rather than seeing Chombo as a destroyer of civil administration. They are waking up everyday to find out what Tsvangirai or Ncube has said," he says.

Although Chombo, who argues that he is trying to regularise service delivery in municipalities, has replaced the MDC-controlled councils with handpicked commissions, critics point out that the government is attempting to bring on board "obedient" people who are easy to manipulate as the commissioners are mainly ruling party activists.
"The existence of mayors in urban areas is a plus for MDC in terms of it being able to engage with the masses and prove its ability to govern," says Ernest Mudzengi.
"So the appointment of pliable officers could be a process through which ZANU PF wants to neutralise what could be an MDC power-base."

In Mutare the commission now running the affairs of the city is chaired by Kenneth Saruchera, the ruling party’s spokesperson for Manicaland Province and other failed politicians like Ellen Gwaradzimba. A senior member of the party’s women’s league in the province, she was trounced by Kagurabadza in the 2003 mayoral elections.

Irene Zindi, a former ZANU PF MP for Hatfield trounced by MDC spokesperson for finance and economics Tapiwa Mashakada, who has fruitlessly sought to stand for parliamentary elections in the province is another appointee. The other commissioners include Ronald Chayambuka, Abbiot Maronge, Didymus Matongo and ZANU PF central committee member Esau Mupfumi who served in a team that probed Kagurabadza.

"These are coups on democratically elected institutions," said Nelson Chamisa, the opposition MDC’s spokesperson who blames the government-induced shortages of fuel and foreign currency for the sub-standard service delivery in local government.

"They have realised that their people are not electable and they now want to get into office through the back door," he added.

After subverting the people’s will by hounding Harare’s first opposition mayor, Elias Mudzuri, out of office in 2003 and replacing him with a commission chaired by Sekesai Makwavarara, a former MDC councillor, Chombo craftily targeted Mutare Mayor Kagurabadza and Chitungwiza’s Shoko.

But critics say Kagura-badza’s suspension was a retributive act for his unmasking of the government in the eyes of United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan’s special envoy Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka who visited Zimbabwe last year to assess the effects of the demolition blitz.

"They are rejected and recycled politicians," says Kagurabadza. "These are people who have totally failed in their political careers. They are not using the back door to come back into politics but they are finding their way under the door," he adds.

While Zimbabweans could be pondering on Chombo’s next target now that he has "successfully" wrested control of three MDC-led municipalities, the minister is making the few remaining MDC councils quake with fear. Chombo has also tormented and frustrated opposition-led councils in Chegutu, Kariba and Bulawayo, which analysts predict is his next target because Executive Mayor Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube has previously clashed with the government over malnutrition deaths in the city.

When will it all end?

"Not until he has driven every MDC council out of office," Makumbe says. He states that Chombo would want to wipe out all urban councils under MDC rule before 2008 when presidential elections are scheduled to take place.
"He now wants a clean plate to serve either Mugabe or his successor to whom he will say ‘there are no flies or maggots in the ointment’," said Makumbe.

Nonetheless, the opposition party, long accused of being ineffective, warns it will not fold its hands in the face of Chombo’s crusade.

"We are going to confront the government," declares Chamisa.

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