Kombayi survives ouster plot

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AN attempt by some MDC-T councillors to pass a vote of confidence on Gweru mayor Hamutendi Kombayi has hit a brickwall after the party’s provincial executive turned down the request.
Hamutendi Kombayi
Hamutendi Kombayi

AN attempt by some MDC-T councillors to pass a vote of confidence on Gweru mayor Hamutendi Kombayi has hit a brickwall after the party’s provincial executive turned down the request.

By Stephen Chadenga

According to sources, the agitators led by councillors Albert Chirau (Ward 11) and Tawanda Magidi (Ward 16) wanted to pass a vote of no confidence on Kombayi following the recent strike by municipal workers that paralysed operations at the local authority for two weeks.

“The two councillors had drafted a vote of no confidence motion on the mayor following the recent industrial action by workers,” a councillor who requested anonymity said.

Workers went on strike on April 28 to pressure the local authority to pay outstanding salaries and bonuses.

They suspended the strike following the intervention of Provincial Affairs minister Jason Machaya and promises by their employer to pay the February salaries today.

“These two councillors mobilised other councillors to say Kombayi should be relieved of his duties as he had failed as the mayor of the city,” the source said.

Chirau and Magidi could neither deny nor confirm that they were part of a plot to push Kombayi out.

Kombayi confirmed there were councillors from his party who wanted to pass a vote of confidence on him, but he said the move was unprocedural and it had been rejected by the MDC-T provincial executive.

“They lost their bid at the (party) province meeting last weekend,” was all Kombayi could say.

Kombayi was elected mayor after the 2013 elections in defiance of an MDC-T directive to elect trade unionist Charles Chikozho for the post in the Midlands capital.

He was subsequently suspended from the party alongside four other councillors who included Magidi who is now one of his tormentors.

Kombayi is the son of Gweru’s first black mayor, the late Patrick Kombayi.