The MDC maintains and believes that local councils should provide safe and secure local communities, whilst availing people with accountable councillors and officers whose first priority is service to the people.

As such, the MDC views the recent remarks by Chombo to fight the Bulawayo City Council for refusing to implement a dubious directive as not only disgusting but typical of "big boy bully" mentality embedded in Zanu PF's rank and file. Chombo's threats are nothing but empty rhetoric meant to cover up his own corrupt tendencies.

In his considered intelligence or lack of it, Chombo ironically accuses the MDC councillors for corruption yet his own record is tainted with a litany of corrupt activities which have brought most council operations to their knees.

It is pathetic that Chombo, a corrupt baron himself chooses to deliberately ignore recent cases in which he is implicated in serious scams of fleecing councils of their meagre resources through his so-called probe teams.

We are aware that the Chitungwiza town council workers have gone for months without salaries after Chombo's probe team siphoned everything that was available in the council's coffers. Therefore, Chombo does not have the moral ground to speak against corruption when in fact he has become the epitome of corruption in Zimbabwe.

The MDC does not condone corruption in whatever form and at whatever level as manifest in the actions we have taken against corrupt councilors. However, true to Chombo's and his dying Zanu PF party's DNA which nurtures and tolerates corruption, he has refused to take action against them.

Chombo's all too familiar Zanu PF antics of posturing and falsely apportioning blame to others will not absolve him and his Zanu PF from the corrupt tag that has commonly become their trademark.

The MDC remains committed in delivering a new, prosperous Zimbabwe where local councils are motivated by the desire to give quality, affordable service to the people for sustainable development and growth.