GWERU city fathers have rejected a move to confer freedom of the city status on President Emmerson Mnangagwa after CCC councillors voted against the idea in council chambers on Wednesday.
RUVIMBO MUCHENJE
Gweru is the capital of the Midlands, Mnangagwa’s home province. Mnangagwa has for long been considered the political godfather of the province, which is also his citadel of power.
Freedom of the city status is the highest honour granted to residents who would have served the city in a befitting manner. Gweru mayor and MDC-T councillor Hamutendi Kombayi was vigorously pushing for Mnangagwa to bestowed the status.
In an audio he sent to The NewsHawks, Kombayi said he wanted the President to be honoured because he hails from the region.
He argued that the honour would have pushed Mnangagwa to improve service delivery in the city. The audio was also sent to residents in a WhatsApp group called Gweru Resients and Rate Payers Association.
“I did not see anything wrong with conferring the alderman status, the freedom of the city status to a President who comes from this region. It would have been a starting point for us to engage President Mnangagwa on issues that affect the city. Like in Gwenoro there are constant power cuts, we would ask him to look into it, the problem of bursting water pipes. It would have been a message to them that we have humbled ourselves although you are constantly attacking us so that you give us guidance and lead us. Remember, council is an arm of government,” said Kombayi.
He accused CCC councillors of prioritising party politics ahead of the interests of the people of Gweru.
“Conflict management is very important. When you are elected as councillor, you are no longer councillor for the party that you were elected from, you are now a city councillor who represents everyone, including those who do not share the same interests with you.
“We cannot always want to play party politics, saying we are CCC we should always oppose the government of the day without considering the interests of the people first in regards to service delivery. No, it does not work that way, it doesn’t, we do not do that,” he said.
CCC councillor for ward two and former mayor of Gweru Josiah Makombe told The NewsHawks Mnangagwa had hampered the city’s service delivery and that there was no need to grant him freedom of the city status.
“The status is given to someone who would have exceptionally served the community or the city in a manner that is beneficial to the residents of that city, but, in our case a motion was moved by some of the councillors wanting to give that status to President Mnangagwa. But we felt that as a city there was nothing that points to him where he served the city of Gweru in that manner so we refused to give him that recognition,” Makombe said.
“As a city we feel that we are having challenges in providing water, roads, sewer reticulation, refuse removal and all these challenges are caused by economic challenges that we are having as a country are supposed to be solved by the President, who is Mnangagwa, and he has failed to solve the challenges that we have in the country and in that regard the councillors felt that there is no reason for Gweru to give him that honour.”
Kombayi has vowed to pursue other methods of bestowing freedom of the city status on Mnangagwa and warned CCC councillors against “cheap politics”.
“We have done a fair process, haven’t we? We are going to do a further democratic process, the buck doesn’t stop there. Surely the buck doesn’t stop there. And I want to assure you residents that I do not do party politics. Partisan politics will not build Gweru. I am more interested in conflict management between parties so that everyone looks at Gweru with a heart. We are the city of progress,” he said.
“You can lie to each other all you want, we will not divulge much at this moment, but we have a problem of CCC councillors wanting to cleanse themselves by fighting the ruling party. They are not considering the issues at hand that can see our city being helped by government with all the problems bedevilling our town.”
In 2020, when the opposition-controlled Victoria Falls was declared a city it bestowed freedom of the city status on Mnangagwa in recognition of his contribution to the resort town’s transformation.
