allAfrica.com: Africa: African Leaders Must 'Rescue' Zimbabwe, Says Harare Mayor (Page 1 of 3)

Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe has become an opposition stronghold, electing in March 2002 from the ranks of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) the city's Executive Mayor and most of the city council.

Almost immediately after that election, a power struggle between Minister of Local Government, Ignatius Chombo, and Harare's new MDC Mayor, Elias Mudzuri, a civil engineer by profession, ensued. Zanu-PF department heads were fired by Mudzuri. Chombo blocked badly needed funds for local improvements and development. Last March, young Zanu-PF supporters toyi-toyi'd around Town House - Harare's city hall - chanting: "Mudzuri should be beaten up, he must be killed and he must be removed."

A month later, Mudzuri was suspended from his post by Chombo who alleged misconduct on the part of Mudzuri. But despite the suspension, Mudzuri has insisted that he was still entitled to hold civic and council meetings in the municipality. Chombo has made an "urgent application" to the High Court to bar Mudzuri from executing council duties while under suspension. So far, the court has made no judgement.

All of this has been unfolding against the backdrop of a worsening political and economic conditions in Harare and across Zimbabwe. Monday, a week of planned protests across Zimbabwe began and an MDC news release,at the end of the day reported that members of the army and police had opened fire on peaceful demonstrators in the Highfields district of Harare. MDC leaders vow to continue with the protests.

Mudzuri has been in the States during these protests, "resting a bit" he says, and also trying to raise some money for the MDC; "we are broke," he says. He is awaiting the June 5th start of the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting that will be held in Denver this year. Although this will be the 71st meeting of the U.S. conference, the 2nd International Conference of Mayors will be going on concurrently. AllAfrica.com's Charles Cobb Jr. spoke with Mudzuri before he left for Denver. Excerpts:

You were suspended as Mayor last April and the man who suspended you, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing [Ignatius Chombo], has asked the High Court to bar you from executing your duties as Mayor. Are you still the Mayor of Harare in any real sense?

Until the courts decide, I am the mayor even though I have been suspended. But I have not accepted the suspension, on the basis that it is illegal to follow illegal orders from the Minister. I strongly believe that the government is just playing politics.

But can you now walk into your office, pick up the telephone and tell an agency, 'This is the Mayor...'

I did that but the police came after me. They literally removed me from office. Maybe after this court gives a verdict we can see how we will proceed. The minister went to court to enforce his suspension. It has been heard but there is no verdict yet.

They want to assess whether I am suitable or not. The minister didn't do that. he simply said, 'Go away.' This was a political move agreed to at cabinet levels: "Just throw him out and see what they will do."

They even took my keys for the official car and up to now I haven't gotten them back.

What was at issue between you and the minister, or you and the national government?

I am the mayor who was elected by over a million people in Harare and I've been running [city] council affairs in a very transparent and accountable manner, but the minister has been interfering with the work, trying to make sure that I don't perform as much as I am supposed to. Since I got in he has always aimed to remove me.

Why?

Because of lack of tolerance by Zanu-PF; it doesn't tolerate opposition views. Out of 45 councilors [in Harare] 44 are MDC; only one is Zanu-PF. And the Mayor is MDC. The council has been reasonably successful. We are getting all the handshakes from the public who say, "You are doing well under very difficult circumstances." The minister ran that council for three years and he did nothing substantial that people were appreciating. I am an engineer. I know the core business of the council. I worked for the council before and I have been undoing all the corruption which has been greasing the hands of the ruling party members.

Right now, Harare is being rocked by protests or strikes that the MDC has called. Some 150 people, including most of the MDC leadership was arrested Tuesday. Will you talk about this at two levels: first as the mayor of the city in which these strikes are taking place, with protestors faced with bullets and tear gas and thousands saying away from work and business even if they are not in the streets. And secondly, as an MDC leader; How worried are you that this crackdown might break the back of the MDC?

The people of Harare have really suffered. Since they started electing the MDC into office, the government has never forgiven them. They have had no mealie meal which is the basic food to make sadza [cornmeal porridge]. We have not been given borrowing power by the government. We have not been given adequate foreign currency by the government. There is literally nothing the government has done to assist us.

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