Mutare(ZimEye)Brian James MDC-T Mayor for Mutare has been suspended with immediate effect by Ignatius Chombo, the Minister of Local government.
The Mayor received the suspension letter Friday at 9AM. The letter was however dated 19 January and indicated that the suspension was with immediate effect.
The suspension letter which being being void of detail only stated misconduct as the cause of the suspension. Fuller details of the allegation were only made known through the state run Herald newspaper the following day Saturday.
Chombo’s letter reads: “Having cautioned you in a letter of Remedial Intervention dated March 03 2011, reports of misconduct continue to come to my office implying that you are unrepentant. This leaves me with no option other than to invoke section 114 of the Urban Councils Act (chapter 29:15) to suspend you from being a councillor (ward 12) Mutare City, with immediate effect.”
Chombo said he has received several reports of misconduct on the part of Brian James , he however did not give the sources. The Mayor was quickly and forcefully ejected from his office by municipal police and a number of zanu pf militia.
In early January responding to a question in an interview about his previous battles with Chombo, James said Minister Chombo had a disruptive influence to which they had no choice but make do with.
“Ah yes they are well documented…. the public must realise as well where some of our problems are originating from and if we can concentrate on service delivery and bring the public on board in those endeavours then his influence, his disruptive influence, can I put it that way if it is disruptive, minimises, but at the same time he is the minister and we have to take his directives and his thinking on board and deal with it independently and consultatively,” commented Mayor James in an interview.
According to state media Mayor James is being accused of misappropriating council funds amounting to US$4 000. The mayor, it is alleged, sought legal advice on a personal matter but used council funds to foot the bill. It is further alleged that Mayor James hired a South African company KV3 to help craft the Mutare City Budget at a cost of US$48 000.
The unilateral decision was highly contested by councillors forcing him to temporary quit his job for four months in protest.
In blocking attempts by Mayor James to rope in KV3, councillors argued that the city had no money to foot the consultation fee.
Councillors made it clear there were abundant local skills able to craft the budget.
“When his efforts to bring in the Johannesburg based KV3 to craft the budget he quit accusing councillors of defying his directives. He later came back but refused to sign the budget that had been compiled by council in his absence” a source said.
Mayor James only signed the budget after the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development in Harare had summoned him.
Contacted for a comment yesterday, Mayor James said: “Yes, I have been suspended on allegations of misconduct. I am seeking legal advice.”
On hiring a South African company to help craft the city budget, Mayor James claimed it was a council resolution to rope in KV3.
“Council resolved to employ them but later resolved to shelve the idea,” he said.
Chombo has in the past few months been the subject of may questions raised over his multiple acquired properties which are scattered across the country’s towns and cities.(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)
11 Replies to “Chombo suspends Mutare’s Mayor”
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if chombo has the power to suspend mayors then why the mdc ministers , especially home affairs Makone NOT able to suspend the police commissioner.. chihuri..
If you notice carefully you will realise that in Zim , the highest number of teaboys and garden boys after Malawians, come from Mutare( Including Chenyoro). Their belief in white supremacy is thus not surprising at all. M sorry to be so brash, there are some heroes like Tekere , but I wish many more would need to wake up and believe in themselves and their own. Get rid of these wolves you fondly refer to as PACHEDU Bennett. Pachedu ? My swollen foot!
chombo akaoma. why suspending the innocent mayor leaving the councillors who pocketed money from the water pipes tender.
From the article. James to have flouted dome standing rules. Maybe Chombo was right in firing him. However, for him to be pushed out of office by “…a number of zanu pf militia” is not only deplorable but disgusting. Chombo’s corrupt and tainted life should not stop him from executing his duties. Nonetheless, we would like his super-ordinate to make him account for his “multiple acquired properties which are scattered across the country’s towns and cities”.
Surely a South African company hired to do a budget for a small town like Mutare? Thats the highest order of arrogance,there are firms of chartered acountants run by blacks in Zimbabwe who could done the job better and cheaper.Well done Cde Chombo.
I now know who racists and tribalists are. Arrogant good for nothings who think they are more Zimbabwean than others. You are bona fide and son of the soil in the village you were born , not in other pples spaces.This is addressed to all the dreamers who still think that you cant be mayor if you are not from their clan.
Well done Minister Chombo. You are the real no nonsense minister, please clean them up, vanobata muswe
Mhata inonzi Chegotsi shut the fuck up u are as dumb as fuck u ZANUnazi asshole, Chamunovengera varungu hapana after all u sleep and eat wht was brot by them (whites) and who are we (people) to judge other pple created in the image of God who own ALL of us. instead of thnking of prosperity,freedom,and peace u busy hating some one coz he different from u by skin colour. Wel u and yo boss Chombo ooooooooh my bad Chomboro u wil lick our asses someday when the SO CALLED zanuNAZI goes down on its knees.
Hitler the famous dictator of all times inga wakozonwa wemakonzo mubanker nehure rake Eva Braun zvaipa, ko kuzoti imi mhata dzezvinyawe. kikikikikikikiki MATUZVI ZVAWO ,muchamama matemba very soon.
Isu kuno tava kutoziva kuti makanzura edu MDC vakapiwa mbudzi negrocery for xmas naMupfumi kwaiva kurovera bhora mudondo kwezanu nekuti hakuna ani hake achada kuvhotera makonzo iwaya anozi mazanu. BRIANA NEMUKADZI WAKE should they run for parliament as independent candidates they will take home the bacon. As for the dull Gerison together with his fellow councillors who failed to support the mayor I say enjoy the sun of Mupfumi, Payeyo and cohorts nekuti maelections kutoti ati gogoyi tinozwa mbuya dzamakaroora nekuba zvekanzuru dzarongedza kuenda kofeva kanyi nekuti munenge mava mahwindi ekuflea-market. Kuramba audit does not mean it will not come someday.The mayor wealthy as he is does not need to steal to make ends meet, besides replanting the town and cleaning up the city ungati vatema vanoda zvekugara mutsvina ukaona madzingirwe aakaitwa kubuditsa munhu muhofisi sembwa mvura yaaifarira kunwa ichikandwa panze namupfumi. Ngatichengetei munhu anoshanda kwete mbavha dzakaba 300 000 ikashayikwa .
chegotsi lets be objective if a white man can run things let him do it chatinoda is top notch service weather its a shona ndebele white or colored as long as they have a zimbabwean citizenship and the relevant credentials augmented by various accolades ohh yes ehhh you mentioned chipanga i admire him for his musicianship and dedication to it thus manifesting his talent but they are those with admin skills such as this white fella whom i feel is being victimized for choice of party not his racial utterances and doings what chombo here is displaying is pugilistic behavior associated with just pure hatred and does not look at the good deeds look how coltart revamped our education yet you here others saying ibhunu but who wrote the books and brought the idea of schools do you want characters like chinotimba of an uncouth and flagrant disposition to be attested into such offices lets think clearly mwana wa mai zimbabwe ndeyedu tese iyi
Is this mayor a descendant of the pale devils? If so, kandi whts wrong with the wasu pple? Wake ,wake chii chacho whn u ar sellouts and bootlickers of these whites.? He shld be kicked out just like Bennett . I hope one day the wasu ,wake ,wake tribe will have confidence in their own. Maybe Brian James is Nyasaland, then I withdraw some of reservations. Nxaa all the same kumakomoyo. Its better to vote for Hosiah Chipanga ikoko.