Marondera Ward 3 Councillor Simbarashe Nyahuye was yesterday elected as the town’s new mayor after he narrowly beat deputy mayor Councillor Bonface Tagwirei during election held in the municipality’s boardroom.
Clr Nyahuye polled four votes, while Clr Tagwirei, received three votes.
The election was to replace Mayor Chengetai Murowa who was part of the five (5) councillors ousted in last week’s recall by the Thokozani Khupe led MDC-T.
Marondera had 12 councillors before the recall with MDC Alliance claiming the majority. After the recall, MDC Alliance and MDC-T had 3 each while ZANU PF had 1.
ZANU PF councillor, Joel Mujaranji of Ward 12 voted for MDC-T’s Nyahuye who eventually won the mayoral race 4-3 against the MDC Alliance candidate.
In his acceptance speech, Clr Nyahuye thanked fellow councillors for bestowing faith in him.
“We will try to work together and the residents are our first priority. I am aware water is the greatest challenge and we are going to work tooth and nail to address the situation,” he said.
Apart from Mr Murowa the other casualties of the MDC T purge were Size Vilela (ward 11), Charles Ngwena (ward 4), Wonder Siriya (ward 6) and Misheck Manyere (ward 5).
MDC Alliance which is led by Nelson Chamisa accuses MDC-T of working with the governing ZANU PF to weaken Chamisa who is regarded the face of opposition in the country.
The leadership crisis in the opposition MDC has been on the rise since the appointment of Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri as vice presidents in the party.
The crisis worsened with the demise of former Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai who succumbed to cancer in 2018 as Khupe and Chamisa wrangled to succeed the late veteran leader.
