BULAWAYO ward 9 councillor Donaldson Mabutho (Citizens Coalition for Change, CCC) has distanced himself from reports linking him to councillors trying to block the election of David Coltart as Zimbabwe’s second largest city’s mayor.
Circulating rumours indicated that there were divisions within the opposition over the selection of Bulawayo mayor after CCC leader Nelson Chamisa reportedly imposed Coltart.
During a rally ahead of the August 23 harmonised elections, Chamisa told supporters that Coltart, who went on to win the ward 4 council seat, would be the next mayor of Bulawayo.
Election for the mayoral post is expected to be conducted today in the CCC-dominated council, in which only two female councillors are proportional representatives for the ruling Zanu PF party.
Unconfirmed reports also indicated that ward 5 councillor Dumisani Nkomo (CCC) is expected to win the race for the deputy mayor’s position.
However, reports over the weekend suggested that some CCC councillors were planning to defy Chamisa by electing Gideon Shoko and Mabutho as mayor and deputy mayor, respectively.
In an interview yesterday, Mabutho, however, said all CCC councillors were behind Coltart as the new Bulawayo mayor.
“I want to distance myself from what I am reading from the media. I am addicted to loyalty to the Citizens Coalition for Change and its leadership. We are guided by the party’s principles and doctrines,” he said.
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“The party itself knows its leadership which it has deployed to lead the Bulawayo City Council, so these are media speculations and it is very healthy for them to speculate.
“Let’s wait for the right time. When the right time comes you will know your leadership. Already what I can confirm is that we are not going back on David Coltart. David Coltart is our mayor and he is going to lead us.”
Mabutho said a CCC caucus would decide who would be the deputy mayor.
“The party is going to give us direction on who should be the deputy mayor of the city. We want to thank the citizens of Bulawayo for voting for us resoundingly and for trusting us to lead in our various wards.
“All I can say is it’s not about positions, it’s about serving Bulawayo. If you see yourself addicted to positions you have got a problem and I’m not one character like that. I believe in serving and serving to the best of my ability and driving the party’s vision to what we want to achieve as a party,” he added.
Coltart, a former Primary and Secondary Education minister, has pledged to clean up Bulawayo to make sure the city is better organised and cleaner.
