By Rutendo Jiri

MDC-T National Standing Committee member, Manase Tsvangirai last week flexed his muscles, when he whipped Harare Councilors to support his bid to reinstate former Harare City Council Human Capital Director, Dr Cainos Chingombe.

Chingombe was dismissed together with former Finance Director, Tendai Kwenda and former Chamber Secretary, Josephine Ncube on allegations of financial abuse after appearing before a disciplinary panel in 2018.

However, Chingombe’s case is still pending finalization after he approached the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s decision to uphold his earlier suspension pending dismissal.

In a desperate bid to have Chingombe reinstated before the matter is finalized by the Supreme Court, Tsvangirai held a meeting with Councilors at the Morgan Richard Tsvangirai House last week, where he is alleged to have desperately tried to influence them to support Chingombe’s bid for reinstatement.

A Councilor who was in the meeting who spoke to The Harare Post on condition of anonymity said that, Tsvangirai allegedly told Councilors that, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, July Moyo had given him a directive to have Chingombe reinstated.

Tsvangirai is reported to have further used Minister Moyo’s name to threaten councilors that, if they refused to support Chingombe’s bid for reinstatement, Harare City Council will be run by a Commission and that any councilor fingered in illegal activity would be prosecuted.

However, the councilors reportedly rejected Tsvangirai’s dictates citing that only the Local Government Board was the responsible authority to handle the matter.

The councilors also questioned why Minister Moyo would send Tsvangirai with a verbal instruction on such a matter of importance.

“This matter is before the courts and has not been finalized by the Supreme Court. It is also not our mandate to decide on matter before the courts and for us it sounds dubious that the Minister would send Tsvangirai equipped with only a verbal instruction and nothing in writing on such a high matter,” said an anonymous councilor.

Harare Deputy Mayor, Luckson Mukunguma argued that Chingombe’s dismissal or reinstatement would follow the Supreme Court ruling.

“The only way to reinstate Chingombe is after he has been acquitted of charges levelled against him by the Supreme Court,” he said.