The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
AS the MDC Alliance continues to debate on who the next Bulawayo mayor and deputy will be, three of the councillors who have been linked to former Deputy Mayor, Gift Banda, have distanced themselves from the Njube-Lobengula legislator saying they were independent individuals whose main focus was to uplift the city.
The selection of the new mayor and deputy has in the past couple of weeks attracted a lot of debate within the MDC Alliance and residents, with the opposition party conducting interviews of all those interested in the two topmost positions in the city.
After the interviews, Clr Solomon Mguni and Clr Ernst Rafomoyo emerged as front runners for the mayoral position, while for the deputy position, Clrs Felix Mhaka, Rodney Jele and Tinashe Kambarami emerged as top contenders.
However, it is the emergence of the three youthful councillors; Clr Mguni, Clr Mhaka and Clr Kambarami, who are all in council for the first time, which has raised a lot of debate with some party members claiming the three, were being fronted by Mr Banda who wanted to maintain a hold on the local authority.
However, in separate interviews the three councillors distanced themselves from the former deputy mayor, saying while they respected Mr Banda as their party’s provincial chairperson they were not his stooges but were individuals wanting to push the city’s developmental agenda.
Clr Mguni, who after the party interviews emerged as a top contender for the mayoral position said when he submitted his application to become the city’s next mayor, no one had influenced him save for his vision of guiding the city to greater heights.
The 35-year-old practising lawyer said he is an independent person whose passion is to lead and show all that youths now want to be part of the developmental agenda of both the city and country.
“I am an independent individual who made a personal decision to lead this city. I was never and will never allow myself to be controlled by someone. Yes, (Mr) Banda is my party provincial chairperson but I cannot be seen taking any instructions from him, he can only guide me in terms of party policy not pulling the strings on how the city is governed. Besides I am a lawyer by profession and these are some of the things which we are taught to guard against,” said Clr Mguni.
Turning to his vision if he lands the post, Clr Mguni said his idea is to turn Bulawayo into a smart city. He said the city has to be transformed, infrastructure-wise, in a bid to attract investment and restore its former glory of being the country’s industrial capital.
“For many years we have been accused of being cry babies but the time has come for us to stand up for ourselves and lead the city’s development. In the next five years I believe we must take up a robust approach in terms of marketing the city, coming up with incentives to attract investment and also revisiting our philosophy of twinning with other cities, seeing that we really benefit from these twinning agreements,” he said.
Clr Mguni, who is currently studying for a Master of Law degree with the University of South Africa, said the fact that a number of youths were keen in leading the city should show that the future is bright in terms of restoring the city’s former glory.
Another aspirant 32-year-old Clr Kambarami also echoed Clr Mguni’s sentiments, but acknowledged that there were some councillors who were being preferred by Mr Banda although he was not part of them. He said as a man he was not willing to be used or influenced by anyone noting that for him to be able to serve the city successfully he would have to act independently and not allow himself to be used as a stooge.
“When you look at it, in terms of years served in the party, I can say I am more senior in politics as Gift Banda found me already in the party, therefore how can I be used or influenced by him. I surely respect him as my leader but not to the extent of him pulling my strings,” said Clr Kambarami.
On his immediate challenges if he manages to become the city’s next deputy mayor, Clr Kambarami said as a businessman who has been running an IT company for the past 10 years, he fully understands the challenges the city’s business sector has endured hence his goal will be to lead in the turnaround project of the city’s industrial sector.
He said he would take his IT expertise to encourage fellow councillors to pass resolutions which will see the city move from analogue to the digital era.
“Our challenge is to turn this city into the commercial capital, we all know that Bulawayo has the potential considering its proximity to neighbouring South Africa, Zambia and Botswana, therefore we must use this to our advantage which will see this beautiful city become the hub it once was. Further, I have had the exposure, having travelled to a number of countries in the world and I have seen how cities in those countries are run, I would want to take that expertise and bring it to the City of Bulawayo,” he said.
Clr Mhaka, who coincidentally replaced Mr Banda as ward five councillor, laughed off the allegations of his links to the former deputy mayor saying he was put in the council chambers by residents who voted for him not any other individual.
“Yes, I know Gift Banda, he is my chairperson of the province but I am Felix Mhaka not Felix Banda, I have a family too as he has too, so I won’t let anyone use me to further their interests but I will put the interests of the citizens of Bulawayo first.
“My focus right now is to secure the deputy mayor position where I am promising transparency in all matters concerning the residents of Bulawayo. I will also strive to engage all stakeholders of the city so they put their input in the building of a better Bulawayo,” he said.
Clr Mhaka said as a businessman who has endured all the hardships faced by the city’s industrial sector he knows all the challenges faced in the city and will work to create an environment that will see council engaging other businesspeople to come up with the best strategies of reviving the city’s industrial sector.
