Moses Matenga
HARARE – As the curtain comes down on Harare Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni’s tenure at Town House, jostling has intensified as politicians’ position to succeed him after Monday’s forthcoming general elections.
Names said to be eyeing the post include that of People’s Democratic Party spokesperson Jacob Mafume who is contesting in Ward 27, MDC Alliance’s Ian Makone, independent candidate Evan Mawarire and Zanu PF’s Beadle Gwasira.
Information gathered by BT Inside Politics shows that there was an agreement between the MDC Alliance and PDP to have Mafume take up the post, but MDC Alliance has since endorsed Makone for the top post.
MDC Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora has since endorsed Makone as fit for office.
“The little secret is that the man you see seeking office as councillor, may, if things go according to plan, turn out to be the Mayor of Harare. This is because of his experience in administration. He has run a lot of enterprises during his working life and has been instrumental to the institutional development of the MDC. We have no doubt about his capacity as a party,” Mwonzora told a meeting recently.
Mafume yesterday said there was an agreed position on the post of Mayor and deputy Mayor within the alliance but declined to shed more light.
“We have a position in place on the mayoral and deputy mayoral position, what we have agreed is to have our best foot forward as parties and if the decision is I am, it will be, but we will work with the will of the people,” he said.
Mafume said he was confident of victory.
“We felt that Harare is a big city with a big responsibility. We cannot expect a world class city and not deploy our best brains. It should be a billion-dollar city and that needs us to put our best brains. I have worked at embassies, law firms, private sector and civic society so l bring a wealth of experience to the job,” he said.
Outgoing Mayor, Bernard Manyenyeni, said the ideal mayor to take over from him should be a multi-tasking individual who should be given executive powers.
“The ideal mayor for Harare should be a diverse creature, professional, business minded, political, civic, social attributes all feature in the specifications.”
“To pull us out of the Harare tragedy, we are going to require an empowered mayor, an executive mayor, ideally or otherwise empowered.”
