Mwonzora Recalls Mutare Mayor, Blessing Tandi

MDC-T president Douglas Mwonzora has recalled Mutare Mayor Blessing Tandi on allegations of secretly working with Nelson Chamisa’s Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).

MDC-T Manicaland spokesperson, Sekai Gombe, confirmed Tandi’s recall in an interview with New Zimbabwe on Monday. Said Gombe:

Former mayor Tandi was working with CCC but some kind of propaganda was propelled to seem as if he was working with the Mwonzora-led party to evade a recall.

He should have been recalled a very long time ago but local government ministry officials were delaying the process.

Meanwhile, CCC, formerly MDC Alliance, has distanced itself from Tandi saying they believed he had joined either MDC-T or ZANU PF. CCC Manicaland spokesperson David Panganayi said:

Tandi was no longer with us anymore as he was floating between Zanu PF and MDC-T.

We never propelled any propaganda since it was his right to join any party of his choice.

He exercised that right when the first batch of councillors was recalled.

We understand he was part of the list of recalls, but we never bothered to enquire about the reasons for a delay.

We strongly believed he had joined Zanu PF or MDC-T.

We are the Citizens Coalition for Change and everyone including Tandi is free to join us so that we can finish the job at hand.

MDC-T national spokesperson Witness Dube revealed that Tandi was recalled some time ago.

He said the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works delayed notifying the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for unspecified reasons. Said, Dube:

Basically, the main reason for Tandi’s recall is incompetence. The party is tightening its grip on public officials particularly the mayors who are failing to lead in the level of excellence expected from our local authorities.

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