By Lonias Majoni
A Chitungwiza Councillor, Kiven Mutimbanyoka of Ward 13 began the month in the lamentations chamber; singing a solo somber hymn after being chastised for attending a 1st of November meeting underdressed.
The Councillor who is believed to have appeared for the meeting clad in a gold shirt and cargo shorts; brought the Ngaibake moment into the Municipal chambers as his act was reminiscent of Alick Macheso’s dazzling starring in the musical video he featured Freeman.
Interestingly, research reveals that Councillor Mutimbanyoka, who is at loggerheads with the Chitungwiza Mayor , Lovemore Maiko, is actually a victim of foul play, sabotage and smear campaign. It has been revealed that the somehow trendy councillor was only invited to the gathering in an informally haphazard manner; with the intention of sidelining him from the crunch meeting .
“First of all there is No dress code for the council. Then secondly, I was only told about the meeting on Friday morning of 1 November at a time when I was at a clean up campaign.Papers had arrived home, summoning me to a meeting that would be underway in a few minutes to follow. I had to rush to the chambers straight from the clean up campaign after receiving a call from home about the summons,” Mr Mutimbanyoka narrated his ordeal.
“Forget about this dressing issue. Their intention was to block me from attending the meeting as they knew I was going to be a problem by addressing certain anomalies, specifically the ploy to change minutes of the Mayor’s court case. The Urban Councils Act clearly stipulates that Councillors should be summoned and given agendas 24 hrs before the meeting and not this child’s play”.
The councillor fumed before proceeding to open a can of worms.
“The major problem we have is that our Council is now run through a Mafia type of operating system. The Mayor has usurped all administrative powers. There are lots of unscrupulous things being done around here and we have been trying to reach out to the media, but unfortunately those supposed to be the eyes, ears and mouthpiece of our society end up being on his payroll and fail to report the truth” .
“For instance, I’ll take you to the St Mary’s Scandal. The Mayor unscrupulously accorded stand number 10606 to a firm called Metal Hill, by-passing all procedural processes that involved the then town clerk, Engineer George Makunde and the community, through public announcements and bids, if any. The latter refused to be part of these corrupt activities by rejecting to sign an offer letter before all lawful processes had been met. The Mayor went on to allocate the stand to the firm, but fortunately, the police arrested him for that scandal”
“Investigations are still underway and the Mayor, after being released on bail, came with a vindictive wave and fired the town clerk and replaced him with his cell mate and fellow land baron Engineer David Duma; on that very same day. All this is unheard of as it’s not only unconstitutional but absurd. Engineer George Makunde, who was accused of insubordination and ineptitude by the Mayor alone, was fired by the Mayor alone and replaced by the Mayor alone, in an authoritative manner. This was done by one man, against the constitutional requirements that such a matter be investigated before a special meeting ensues, involving the 25 councilors who will give a ruling and not one man,” Councillor Mutimbanyoka emotionally narrated his story.
Efforts to contact the Chitungwiza Mayor were fruitless as his phone could not go through. The Mayor, Lovemore Maiko is not new to controversy as he already has an arson case to answer for being implicated in burning a ZBC vehicle a few months ago. A commission of inquiry is believed to have been set up to investigate some of the inconsistencies rocking the Chitungwiza City Council.
