Harare deserves an elected council, not commission

The arrest of Harare mayor and ward 27 councillor Herbert Gomba and senior council officials by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) on allegations of corruption do not at all justify the appointment of a commission to run the affairs of the capital city.

The Harare Residents Trust (HRT) does not support the appointment of a commission by the Local Government and Public Works minister. Previous commissions left Harare City Council in a worse off situation than it was under elected councillors.

Zacc, municipal and police investigators should leave nothing to chance. They have to dig deeper into all cases of land sales in Harare and go beyond July 30 2018 when the current council came into office.

The HRT strongly believes that the current group of councillors, especially the “super councillors” also known as the “Guptas” has seriously eroded citizens’ trust because of their insatiable appetite to sell wetlands and open spaces without following laid down procedures, as provided in the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act (Chapter 29:12) and the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29:15).

On July 30 2018, Harare residents democratically elected 46 councillors to represent their interests in council.

Only one of them belongs to Zanu PF, with 45 belonging to the MDC Alliance.

Of the 46 councillors, 15 were previously in council and are serving their second or third terms of office.

The majority – 31 councillors – are in council for the first time and are not very much involved in corruption, except for three.

However, irrespective of the performance of the councillors, those implicated in corruption should be arraigned before the courts and be accorded the chance to defend themselves.

The HRT considers all the accused councillors innocent until they are found guilty.

The HRT wants all corrupt councillors to eventually go to jail, lose their positions and all the assets they amassed through corrupt means forfeited to the State.

In conclusion, the City of Harare is at its weakest as a local government institution.

However, the allegations raised against all the councillors and officials should be proven or disproved in court.

And even if the councillors, including Gomba are convicted and sent to jail, that does not justify the appointment of a commission to replace the elected councillors.

Where a minority of the councillors have been convicted or recalled, the due process of the law should be followed to replace them, but definitely not through a commission.

Harare City Council deserves to be run by an clected council and not a commission! Harare Residents Trust