Bulawayo councillors sworn in | Business Times

OUR BULAWAYO CORRESPONDENT

 

Bulawayo’s town clerk, Christopher Dube, yesterday oversaw the swearing-in of the 29 newly elected councillors with the  mayor to be chosen on Monday, Business Times can report.

All 29 wards in Bulawayo were won by the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) councilors.

The councilors took the oath of office yesterday, and they will elect the mayor and deputy mayor on Monday after their induction in Gweru, which will  take place  today and on Friday.

It is anticipated that Bulawayo’s next mayor will be Councillor David Coltart.

“The first ceremony ( to swear in councillors ) is complete.

“Section 42 of the Urban Council Act stipulates that councillors must be sworn in by the town clerk before they start their work.

And normally we used to combine these two section 47 (iii) and section 48 (ii) where we will have two ceremonies where we will have swearing in ceremony, “ Dube said.

He added: “We are going to Gweru this evening (yesterday) for induction period which is conducted by government on Thursday (today) and Friday.

“This is to prepare councillors to know what to do if they enter into the office of councillor and obviously we have heard queries to say why we did separate the two meetings.”

Dube said that the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works advised them to separate the two ceremonies—the election of the mayor and deputy mayor and the swearing-in of the new mayor.

Usually, both ceremonies  take place on the same day.

“ Don’t see any infringement of the law. It was purely an administrative issue where government wanted to empower councillors,” Dube said.

He added: “On Monday (next week) we are going to have our first meeting where we are going to elect the mayor and the deputy. This meeting will be chaired by the director of governance in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works.”

 

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