The popular opposition mayor of Zimbabwe’s capital city, Elias Mudzuri, went into hiding from police Friday as authorities tried to enforce a controversial order to suspend him from office, lawyers said.
While the search continued, senior police officers visited the deputy mayor to try and force her to take over Mudzuri’s office, but she also defied them.
”The mayor has gone into hiding and cannot be contacted,” said advocate Edith Mushore. ”His attorney has informed police she can bring him in, but only after they say what charge they want him on.
”They haven’t specified any charges. They don’t have anything to charge him with,” she said.
Earlier in the day, she said, local government minister Ignatius Chombo abandoned an application to the high court here to force Mudzuri to formally leave office, shortly before the application was due to be heard, she said.
”They thought they would be able to get an order if we didn’t contest it, but when they heard we were opposing it, they abandoned it,” she said. ”They knew they couldn’t stand it up.”
A storm erupted after Tuesday when the government delivered an order suspending Mudzuri from office with immediate effect, accusing him of corruption, abuse of office and of failing to deliver services to Harare’s residents.
Observers say the government has been severely embarrassed in its bid to force out the mayor only days before the presidents of South Africa, Nigeria and Malawi are due to visit the capital for critical talks to try and resolve the country’s crisis.
Since he was elected last year, Mudzuri has won the hearts of the capital’s residents for his attempts to rehabilitate the city after decades of decay under the corrupt and inept administration under President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party.
Mudzuri overwhelmingly won the mayoral elections as the candidate of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), but since then has suffered constant interference from the government which blocked his projects, barring him from borrowing capital finance and even refusing him foreign currency to import water purification chemicals for the city’s water supply.
He was arrested and kept in filthy police cells for four days in January -for addressing a ratepayers’ meeting.
Mudzuri has defied this week’s suspension order, and carried out civic functions during the week. The suspension order also told deputy mayor Sekesai Makwavarara to take over Mudzuri’s role, but she also ignored authorities.
She confirmed she had been visited Friday by two senior police officers who attempted to intimidate her into moving into his office. ”They said they wanted to know how safe I am,” she said.
They also tried to get the key to his office from the council secretary and asked why Makwavarara was ”not operating out of the mayor’s office,” she said. ”They cannot push me,” she said. ”I know where I stand.”
Advocate Mushore said the suspension was illegal. ”The state cannot just suspend the mayor. It has to conduct an inquiry and hold a referendum among the ratepayers who elected him, to see whether or not they believe he has failed to deliver. The government did neither of those.”
She would challenge the government’s suspension order in court on Monday, she said. ‒ Sapa-DPA