GOZ INTENSIFIES ASSAULT ON MDC MUNICIPAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000011

SIPDIS

AF/S FOR B. NEULING
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE
AFR/SA FOR E. LOKEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/06/2011
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ZI MDC ZANU PF
SUBJECT: GOZ INTENSIFIES ASSAULT ON MDC MUNICIPAL
GOVERNMENTS

REF: A. HARARE 1038

B. 2004 HARARE 2035

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i., Eric T. Schultz under Section 1
.4 b/d

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Summary
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1. (C) All 19 of Mutare's MDC city councilors resigned on
January 4 in response to their December 29 suspension by
Minister of Local Government Ignatius Chombo over alleged
mismanagement. The Minister appointed an acting council of
ruling party loyalists to run the city. Chombo also
suspended the MDC executive mayor of Chitungwiza, Mishek
Shoko, on December 29. These moves follow an announcement by
the Ministry that overdue urban council elections for Harare,
which has been governed by an ZANU-PF acting mayor and
commission since December 2004, would be postponed until

2007. Three of Zimbabwe's four largest cities have now had
their elected MDC councils removed by the central government
and are now under ruling party control. End Summary.

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GOZ Takes Over Mutare
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2. (U) By letter on December 29, Chombo suspended Mutare's
full City Council - all 19 members of which were elected MDC
representatives. According to the GOZ-controlled Herald
newspaper, a commission appointed by Chombo would manage the
city's affairs during an investigation into alleged
mismanagement by the elected council. Heading the commission
would be Kenneth Saruchera, a ZANU-PF ex-council member and
former party provincial spokesperson. The suspensions
followed the July suspension of Mutare's MDC mayor, Misheck
Kagurabadza (ref A).


3. (SBU) The councilors responded by submitting a collective
letter of resignation dated January 4 (e-mailed to AF/S),in
which they blasted the Ministry for its incessant
interference with the Council's business, including the
freezing of its budget despite hyperinflation, the unlawful
overriding of its personnel decisions, and the confiscation
of its vehicles. They asserted that the investigation's
findings were a foregone conclusion and explained that they
would save ratepayers' money by resigning.


4. (C) Suspended Mayor Kagurabadza reiterated to the Embassy
on January 5 that Chombo was on a mission to destroy all MDC
municipal councils. He noted that Chombo's Mutare commission
was packed with ZANU-PF loyalists ) some of whom had already
been rejected by the Mutare electorate. One commissioner,
for example, was Ellen Gwaradzimba, who Kagurabadza had
handily defeated with over 80 percent of the votein the last
mayoral race. Kagurabadza said he remained suspended but had
not resigned and the "investigation" of specious allegations
against him continued.


5. (C) Kagurabadza questioned the utility of the opposition
participating at all in municipal elections given its
experience since nearly sweeping the last national urban
council elections in 2003. He said the party leadership had
not addressed the participation issue in view of its division
and disarray but added that the party's provincial leadership
recently met with the suspended council and recommended that
it resign.

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Chitungwiza Mayor Also Booted
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6. (U) According to independent press reports, Chitungwiza
Mayor Misheck Shoko confirmed that he had received a
suspension letter from Chombo on December 29. The state
media reported on December 30 that Shoko had been suspended
to stem the municipality's failure to provide services in
Zimbabwe's third largest city, a sprawling dormitory
community for the capital. MDC Deputy Mayor Collins Gwiyo
would serve as acting mayor pending the probe's conclusion.


7. (C) In a late November meeting, Shoko outlined to us the
various efforts undertaken by Chombo's Ministry to undermine
the city's local governance. Most significantly, the ZANU-PF
town clerk nearly one year ago had diverted a supplementary
Z$5 billion (US$1.25 million at the then official exchange
rate) disbursement from the Reserve Bank (RBZ),most of which
went to Chombo himself for use in the March parliamentary
elections. According to Shoko, Chombo had also diverted Z22
billion of Chitungwiza's money to discharge debts of Harare,
which is being run by a ZANU-PF-appointed commission.


8. (C) Shoko said that when the Ministry tried to hold him
accountable for resulting booking discrepancies, the popular
war veteran enlisted the support of RBZ Governor Gideon Gono.
Shoko said that Gono's investigation exonerated him and that
Gono had advocated on his behalf with Chombo and Mugabe.
Nonetheless, Chombo had continued to thwart Shoko's personnel
moves, including his effort to fire the clerk, and dispatched
his Ministry's district administrator to disrupt and override
his executive decisions. Moreover, the GOZ continued to
withhold money due the city while the ruling party deployed
its loyalists in disruptive "protests" against the mayor.


9. (C) Shoko said the acting mayor, a former ZCTU official,
has a history of vigorously opposing the ruling party. He
predicted that the GOZ would eventually install a ZANU-PF
loyalist as mayor.

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Harare Election Postponed
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10. (SBU) On December 22, the independent press reported
that Chombo had once again postponed elections for Harare,s
city council, until March 2007. The move will leave the
capital's governance under the control of a Chombo-appointed
commission with former MDC deputy mayor turned ZANU-PF
loyalist Sekesayi Makwavarara at the helm (ref B). The
election's postponement would appear to violate Zimbabwe's
Urban Councils Act, which stipulates that a commission may
run a city only for a maximum of six months. The Combined
Harare Residents Association has challenged the formation of
the commission and the lack of timely elections in court, so
far without success.

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Comment
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11. (C) No longer content with hamstringing opposition-run
local governments, the ruling party appears to be moving to
systematically replace them with &commissions8 of ZANU-PF
loyalists. Given this continuing assault, it is hardly
surprising that the opposition party may be reconsidering its
participation in local elections. Tsvangirai's mainstream
faction of the MDC could choose to extend its electoral
boycott to include the nationwide urban council elections
scheduled for August, elections in which it would otherwise
likely do very well. However, this approach carries risks
for ZANU-PF as well. They will now have to take direct
responsibility for providing city services in both Mutare and
Chitungwiza. In Harare, the commission has performed poorly
and has further undermined the ruling party,s popularity in
the capital. Residents have taken to calling Harare
&pothole city.8 We may very well see this pattern repeated
in the country,s other urban areas.
DELL