MDC Vice President Welshman Ncube says Bulawayo pressure groups and some political parties calling for the appointment of a Commission to run the city‘s affairs are playing into the hands of Zanu PF.
Ncube, who is also a lawyer, warned that efforts by people who are pushing for the dissolution of the MDC controlled council were unconstitutional.
A pressure group calling itself Save Bulawayo Campaign says it wants elected Bulawayo councillors sacked and replaced by a government appointed commission until elections for new councillors are held.
The councillors are being accused of corruption while insisting councillors of Shona origin should not be part of the local authority in a city dominated by Ndebeles.
Some opposition parties like Zapu and Mthwakazi Republic Party, whose candidates lost dismally to the MDC councillors during the elections, have also joined the frenzy to push MDC councillors out of town house.
“We never learn,” Ncube said of the anti-MDC groups on his twitter Tuesday.
“Less than two years ago, some among us were busy cheering and ululating the unconstitutional overthrow of the (Robert) Mugabe regime and fantasising that his storm troopers would usher in a new era of democracy and economic prosperity and here we are witnessing Bulawayo repeat same mistake.”
The MDC Vice president said people of Bulawayo should never be fooled that the government will appoint a professional Commission to run the affairs of the country’s second largest city.
“Whatever are the mistakes we have made as MDC or as councillors, they are all capable of correction and rectification by us within the democratic ethos without inviting a coup government to do a coup against an elected council.
“After all, the Mayor his Worship Solomon Mguni has already started the corrective process both on procedural and substantive issues. In the circumstances, it is a grave mistake to clamour for a negation of the democracy of the people of Bulawayo as expressed by them only a year ago,” said Ncube.
The party’s national chairperson Thabitha Khumalo also expressed concern over the move by the pressure groups and some political parties to remove the councillors.
“I really do not understand why some political parties who participated in the council elections and lost dismally are now advocating for the removal of our councillors and want them replaced by Zanu PF appointed commissioners. Why are they not calling for the removal of a Zanu PF government which has brought all this suffering in the country,” said Khumalo.
