HARARE – Police were called to the Chitungwiza council offices on Monday after the mayor Lovemore Maiko was attacked by machete-wielding thugs just before a full council meeting.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has a big majority in the council, claimed the attack was perpetrated by thugs from President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF party.
“The mayor was almost killed at the council offices by Zanu PF youths clad in Zanu PF regalia,” the party said in a media release.
Luke Tamborinyoka, the party’s deputy spokesman, said the attack on the mayor followed the serving of a suspension letter on town clerk George Makunde.
“He was attacked inside the town clerk’s office by over 100 Zanu PF thugs brought to the Town House in several trucks by several known land barons who are working in cahoots with the town clerk to loot council land by prejudicing bona fide home-seekers,” Tamborinyoka said.
“The mayor was in the process of serving the town clerk with a suspension letter when the hugs barged into the office and brutally assaulted him.”
Tamborinyoka said Makunde is a member of the Zanu PF Mashonaland Central provincial executive.
The mayor was being treated for his injuries at a local hospital, the MDC said.
Maiko, fellow councillor Kudakwashe John and Works Director David Duma were arrested last week and accused of corruption in the issuance of commercial stands.
The MDC, which says the charges are trumped up, insists that the moves against the mayor are designed to stop the council from removing Makunde from office.
Maiko wrote to Makunde on August 30 asking him to explain his absence from three previous full council meetings, in what was the first step in moves to eventually suspend him and trigger a misconduct hearing.
The MDC runs most urban councils in the country, but the party says its programmes are being frustrated by administrators, particularly town clerks some of whom are Zanu PF officials.
Tamborinyoka said Maiko’s arrest last week was “engineered” by Makunde.
“The charges against the town clerk range from gross insubordination, refusal to obey lawful instructions, gross incompetence, falsification of personal and council documents and habitual absence from duty,” Tamborinyoka said.
“The town clerk had last week engineered trumped-up charges against the mayor and his deputy after he knew that a suspension letter would soon be served against him. The police who arrested the mayor and his deputy investigated the allegations and freed them after concluding that the two had no case to answer.
“Today, the town clerk went for the jugular and brought in Zanu PF bouncers to physically assault the mayor. Police were innocent by-standers when the Zanu PF thugs besieged the council offices to brutally assault the mayor, whose only crime is that he is trying to bring order, sanity and improved service delivery to Chitungwiza residents.”
Anti-riot police shut down the council offices and were patrolling the streets outside on Monday afternoon.
