Former Kwekwe mayor Councilor Shadreck Tobaiwa gets a tip to land the mayor's post for the city for the second time amid revelations that the jockeying for the position intensified with six councilors interested in Kwekwe's first civilian post.
Kwekwe city council seats were won mainly by the MDC Alliance opposition with Zanu-PF, which only managed one council seat in Ward 6. Matenda Madzoke, who was mayor of Kwekwe under the card of the ruling party, lost the seat of Charles Juda of the MDC Alliance.
Six council members including Cllr Tobaiwa have allegedly thrown their names in the ring for the mayoral position. Sources told The Herald that the yoke for the post is so tense that it has caused divisions in the MDC-Alliance Midlands South provincial executive power over who should take charge of the departing mayor.
"The problem with the Alliance of the opposition is that it was just made for the elections, now that the elections are over, some council members who have won the council seats are not MDC members, they have only entered the council under the flag of the MDC alliance, and we want real MDC members to be in charge of the board's affairs, "said a member of MDC Chamisa who requested not to be mentioned.
The source said that the MDC party leadership wants Cllr Tobaiwa to take over the mayoral function.
"The argument is that Cllr Tobaiwa was the mayor until 2013 when he lost in the election, so he has some experience," he said. "Every other participant is a newcomer, they were not even council members, so the party prefers someone with a bit of experience." Contacted for comment, Cllr Tobaiwa confirmed filing his resume for the mayoral post. He said he intends to continue with some of the projects he has initiated.
"I understand that there are five other municipal councilors competing for the function, they are all new in the Council but I hope that if I am elected mayor, I continue with the projects I initiated when I was the mayor, he said .
MDC-T provincial chairman Midlands South Sedwell Bhebhe was unavailable for a response yesterday. Others counsel for the mayoral posts are Future Chitore, Melody Chigarande, Joshua Tinago and Angeline Kasipo.
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