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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Gwanda Correspondent
WARD Seven councillor Jastone Mazhale was on Monday elected the Mayor of Gwanda Municipality while Ward 6 councillor Ponalo Maphala was voted Deputy Mayor.

Gwanda Municipality has 10 councillors, nine male and one female who were last Friday sworn into office.

Clr Mazhale of MDC won the Mayoral race after polling six votes beating outgoing Mayor Clr Knowledge Ndlovu (Ward 3) of Zanu-PF who garnered four votes.

The councillors went on to form their committees and are set to appoint chairpersons when the respective committees meet.

Speaking before the election process, Gwanda acting District Administrator, Mr Judge Dube, urged the councillors to select a competent person.

“The post of Mayor is a crucial post within the council and should be taken seriously. Therefore, you should select someone with the capacity and zeal to hold the Mayoral post, don’t select for the purposes of selecting. The Urban Councils Act also requires the elected Mayor to be a competent and capable individual.

“It’s a big office with many responsibilities especially spearheading development of the town. We hope this town will grow under the guardianship of the new mayor being elected today,” said Mr Dube.

In his acceptance speech, Clr Mazhale urged his fellow councillors to set aside political differences and focus on pursuing development for the betterment of the town.

He said he would work towards wiping out corruption within the council.

Clr Mazhale also pledged to execute his duties to his fullest ability.

“I would like to thank you my fellow councillors for entrusting me with such a role. Let’s remove our partisan jacket and embrace one jacket which is of development. I assure the residents that we will engage in an extensive participatory leadership approach,” he said.

“We will involve you in planning, coming up with solutions and we will address challenges together. We will put in place measures to improve revenue collection and one of them is the need for a council farm. However, in order to realise development, I will not tolerate corruption and the first thing I will do to address corruption is to have an audit.”

Clr Mazhale said he would also tackle issues of erratic water supply, refuse collection among others.

He said he was also going to work on the formulation of a master plan that will govern council operations.

Clr Ndlovu also congratulated Clr Mazhale for his victory.

Gwanda Municipality councillors who took the oath of office are Clrs Mkhululi Tshuma (Ward 1), Nappy Machuya Moyo (Ward 2), Knowledge Ndlovu (Ward 3), Njabulo Siziba (Ward 4), Gilbert Dube (Ward 5), Ponalo Maphala (Ward 6), Jastone Mazhale (Ward 7), Ntuthuko Ndebele (Ward 8), Thulani Moyo (Ward 9) and Albert Ndlovu (Ward 10).—@DubeMatutu