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Nqobile Tshili Chronicle Correspondent
THERE was chaos at committee chairpersons’ elections in the Bulawayo City Council after councillors walked out in protest when the acting Town Clerk ordered them to abandon the secret ballot in voting for the finance committee chair.

Sikhangele Zhou allegedly told councillors to vote by a show of hands in electing the powerful finance committee chairperson resulting in the uproar.

Councillors yesterday told The Chronicle that other committee chairpersons had been elected using the secret ballot and they were surprised when Zhou changed the system.

The finance committee is the third most important post among councillors as its holder can act on behalf of the mayor if his deputy is not around.

A number of councillors yesterday vowed to ignore the outcome of the election, which was reportedly won by Ward 1’s Councillor Mlandu Ncube.

He beat Clr Collet Ndlovu of Ward 28 and Ward 23 councillor Thobani Ncube after the incumbent Clr James Sithole of Ward 7 announced he would not seek re-election.

Clr Ndlovu said he considered the election null and void and still looked to Clr Sithole as the finance committee chairperson.

Clr Ndlovu said it boggled the mind why Zhou was getting involved in MDC-T internal fights.

He said by forcing councillors to lift their hands, Zhou wanted to identify councillors to then victimise.

“For other chairpersons the ballot system was used,” he said. “We expected that the whole election was going to follow the secret ballot system. What I know is that my vote is my secret. They wanted to use the voting system to victimise others so that they could fire them from the party. As far as I’m concerned those elections are null and void. I still consider the former finance committee chairperson James Sithole as the standing chairperson.”

A councillor who spoke on condition of anonymity said Zhou actually tried to stop the vote by show of hands.

“As councillors we agreed to do away with the secret ballot. Zhou said it would be the first time in the history of council that a council chairperson is voted for through show of hands but the majority prevailed,” said the councillor.

The councillor said the ballot vote was going to cause problems because two factions controlled by Clr Ndlovu and the deputy Mayor Clr Gift Banda wanted to see who voted against their candidates.

The councillor said 24 out of the city’s 29 councillors voted after five walked out in protest.

“The five are Clrs Collet Ndlovu, Lot Siziba, Reuben Matengu, Lillian Mlilo and Nephat Sibanda,” said the councillor.

Mayor Clr Martin Moyo said there was nothing amiss with the election claiming “democracy” prevailed. He said losers always made arguments to justify their loss.

“Yes we voted by show of hands. Isn’t lifting up of hands a way of voting? It’s democracy. Those who wanted to vote by lifting of hands outnumbered those who wanted to use the ballot system,” he said.

Cllr Moyo said the results of the elections will stand.

A comment could not be obtained from Zhou whose cellphone rang unanswered.

The deputy mayor could also not be reached.

Clr Siboniso Khumalo won in the Future Water Supplies and Water Action committee, Clr Silas Chigora was elected to lead the Environmental Management and Engineering Services committee, while Clr Thobani Ncube became chairperson for the Town Lands and Planning committee.

The Health, Housing and Education committee is now being spearheaded by Clr Thabitha Ngwenya.

The committee chairpersons are automatically elected into council’s all powerful general purposes committee.

Councillors are expected to meet today to choose the chairperson for the audit committee, who is not included in the general purposes committee.