The new councillors replaced eight that were recalled by opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) interim secretary general, Sengezo Tshabangu two months ago.

In the by-elections, the party lost three of the seats to the ruling Zanu PF party, which reduced its majority in the Bulawayo City Council.

Zanu PF won in ward 1 where Josiah Mutangi defeated Shepherd Sithole of the CCC, in ward 21 where songstress Sandra Ndebele Sibindi thumped Simbarashe Dube, and in ward 24 where CCC`s Arnold Batirai lost to Tavengwa Zidya.

The new CCC councillors are Nkosinathi Mpofu (ward 6), Donald Mabuto (ward 9), Felix Takunda Madzana (ward 18), Tinevimbo Maphosa (ward 21) and Ward Mmeli Moyo (ward 22).

They all took oath of office on Thursday.

But council is yet to be furnished with new names for proportional representatives by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to replace those who were recalled.

Speaking after the ceremony, city mayor, David Coltart urged the councillors to bury their political differences and work for the good of Bulawayo.

He said the by-elections were hugely disruptive to the running of the city.

“The process has been hugely disruptive, we had to change our deputy mayor, we have had to change heads of committees. Even on this ceremony, we have heads of our departments, the town clerk and chamber secretary having to be here when the city faces major crisis,” he said.

“Now we need to work together to address this. To the new councillors, who have not worked with me before I say two things must guide us. The first is that we must together adopt a zero-tolerance approach to corruption. That’s the policy of this council. Secondly, this council must be marked by non-partisanship. We have two parties that have been elected today but both of those parties represent in their wards all the citizens of our great city irrespective of how they voted and we have these major issues,” he said.

Coltart said the city is confronted by serious challenges which require a collective approach to solve them.

“The reason why I am so serious today is because we have serious issues facing our city. Water is neither Zanu PF nor CCC in colour, it is needed by everyone and it is only through a collective approach that we can address these issues,” he said.

Bulawayo is currently facing a myriad of service delivery challenges, ranging from clean water and sewer reticulation, health care services and waste management.

New Ziana