CCC Blocks Councillor’s Motion To Extend Town Clerk’s Term

The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) in Bulawayo has disowned a motion tabled by one of its councillors that sought to dissolve a key council committee, in what is widely seen as an attempt to secure a further extension of Town Clerk Christopher Dube’s tenure.

The party has since ordered the sponsor of the motion, Cowdray Park councillor Nkosilathi Hove Mpofu, along with all councillors who supported it, to withdraw the proposal immediately or face disciplinary action.

The crisis arose after the council’s General Purposes (GP) Committee rejected a proposal from Dube himself, which sought to extend his contract to 2028. Committee members described the request as “illegal and unfeasible.”

In a message to councillors and GP committee members on Friday, the CCC Bulawayo provincial leadership declared the motion “null and void,” and stressed that it did not reflect the party’s official position.

The party warned that non-compliance would trigger disciplinary measures, saying some members were resisting the order by claiming to be “in touch with the CCC party’s highest office.”

Dube, who initially retired at the end of his four-year contract in September 2023, had been granted a one-year extension by councillors.

However, the town clerk, in office since October 2016, reportedly sought to exploit a new government policy on retirement ages.

He requested that the council rescind the one-year extension and grant him a new term that would allow him to serve until the age of 70, in 2028.

The GP Committee, which includes several legally-minded councillors, rejected the request, arguing that altering his existing contract was unlawful.

In what insiders view as retaliation, Mpofu tabled a motion on 27 October seeking to dissolve the very committee that had blocked Dube’s proposal.

Confidential council minutes seen by Southern Eye indicate that the strategy was to remove dissenting councillors from the influential committee and replace them with members more amenable to the town clerk’s ambitions.

The motion, signed by 16 councillors, is set to be presented for a full council vote later this month. Mpofu argued that the council should dissolve the current committees and reconstitute them, allowing new committees to elect their own leadership, potentially ousting current chairs who had opposed Dube’s proposed term extension.

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