This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000011 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR B. NEULING 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE 
AFR/SA FOR E. LOKEN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/06/2011 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ZI MDC ZANU PF
SUBJECT: GOZ INTENSIFIES ASSAULT ON MDC MUNICIPAL 
GOVERNMENTS 
 
REF: A. HARARE 1038 
     ¶B. 2004 HARARE 2035 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i., Eric T. Schultz under Section 1 
.4 b/d 
 
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Summary 
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¶1.  (C) All 19 of Mutare's MDC city councilors resigned on 
January 4 in response to their December 29 suspension by 
Minister of Local Government Ignatius Chombo over alleged 
mismanagement.  The Minister appointed an acting council of 
ruling party loyalists to run the city.  Chombo also 
suspended the MDC executive mayor of Chitungwiza, Mishek 
Shoko, on December 29.  These moves follow an announcement by 
the Ministry that overdue urban council elections for Harare, 
which has been governed by an ZANU-PF acting mayor and 
commission since December 2004, would be postponed until 
¶2007.  Three of Zimbabwe's four largest cities have now had 
their elected MDC councils removed by the central government 
and are now under ruling party control.  End Summary. 
 
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GOZ Takes Over Mutare 
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¶2.  (U) By letter on December 29, Chombo suspended Mutare's 
full City Council - all 19 members of which were elected MDC 
representatives.  According to the GOZ-controlled Herald 
newspaper, a commission appointed by Chombo would manage the 
city's affairs during an investigation into alleged 
mismanagement by the elected council.  Heading the commission 
would be Kenneth Saruchera, a ZANU-PF ex-council member and 
former party provincial spokesperson.  The suspensions 
followed the July suspension of Mutare's MDC mayor, Misheck 
Kagurabadza (ref A). 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The councilors responded by submitting a collective 
letter of resignation dated January 4 (e-mailed to AF/S), in 
which they blasted the Ministry for its incessant 
interference with the Council's business, including the 
freezing of its budget despite hyperinflation, the unlawful 
overriding of its personnel decisions, and the confiscation 
of its vehicles.  They asserted that the investigation's 
findings were a foregone conclusion and explained that they 
would save ratepayers' money by resigning. 
 
¶4.  (C) Suspended Mayor Kagurabadza reiterated to the Embassy 
on January 5 that Chombo was on a mission to destroy all MDC 
municipal councils.  He noted that Chombo's Mutare commission 
was packed with ZANU-PF loyalists ) some of whom had already 
been rejected by the Mutare electorate.  One commissioner, 
for example, was Ellen Gwaradzimba, who Kagurabadza had 
handily defeated with over 80 percent of the votein the last 
mayoral race.  Kagurabadza said he remained suspended but had 
not resigned and the "investigation" of specious allegations 
against him continued. 
 
¶5.  (C) Kagurabadza questioned the utility of the opposition 
participating at all in municipal elections given its 
experience since nearly sweeping the last national urban 
council elections in 2003.  He said the party leadership had 
not addressed the participation issue in view of its division 
and disarray but added that the party's provincial leadership 
recently met with the suspended council and recommended that 
it resign. 
 
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Chitungwiza Mayor Also Booted 
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¶6.  (U) According to independent press reports, Chitungwiza 
Mayor Misheck Shoko confirmed that he had received a 
suspension letter from Chombo on December 29.  The state 
media reported on December 30 that Shoko had been suspended 
to stem the municipality's failure to provide services in 
Zimbabwe's third largest city, a sprawling dormitory 
community for the capital.  MDC Deputy Mayor Collins Gwiyo 
would serve as acting mayor pending the probe's conclusion. 
 
¶7.  (C) In a late November meeting, Shoko outlined to us the 
various efforts undertaken by Chombo's Ministry to undermine 
the city's local governance.  Most significantly, the ZANU-PF 
town clerk nearly one year ago had diverted a supplementary 
Z$5 billion (US$1.25 million at the then official exchange 
rate) disbursement from the Reserve Bank (RBZ), most of which 
went to Chombo himself for use in the March parliamentary 
elections.  According to Shoko, Chombo had also diverted Z22 
billion of Chitungwiza's money to discharge debts of Harare, 
which is being run by a ZANU-PF-appointed commission. 
 
¶8.  (C) Shoko said that when the Ministry tried to hold him 
accountable for resulting booking discrepancies, the popular 
war veteran enlisted the support of RBZ Governor Gideon Gono. 
 Shoko said that Gono's investigation exonerated him and that 
Gono had advocated on his behalf with Chombo and Mugabe. 
Nonetheless, Chombo had continued to thwart Shoko's personnel 
moves, including his effort to fire the clerk, and dispatched 
his Ministry's district administrator to disrupt and override 
his executive decisions.  Moreover, the GOZ continued to 
withhold money due the city while the ruling party deployed 
its loyalists in disruptive "protests" against the mayor. 
 
¶9.  (C) Shoko said the acting mayor, a former ZCTU official, 
has a history of vigorously opposing the ruling party.  He 
predicted that the GOZ would eventually install a ZANU-PF 
loyalist as mayor. 
 
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Harare Election Postponed 
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¶10.  (SBU) On December 22, the independent press reported 
that Chombo had once again postponed elections for Harare,s 
city council, until March 2007.  The move will leave the 
capital's governance under the control of a Chombo-appointed 
commission with former MDC deputy mayor turned ZANU-PF 
loyalist Sekesayi Makwavarara at the helm (ref B).  The 
election's postponement would appear to violate Zimbabwe's 
Urban Councils Act, which stipulates that a commission may 
run a city only for a maximum of six months.  The Combined 
Harare Residents Association has challenged the formation of 
the commission and the lack of timely elections in court, so 
far without success. 
 
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Comment 
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¶11.  (C) No longer content with hamstringing opposition-run 
local governments, the ruling party appears to be moving to 
systematically replace them with &commissions8 of ZANU-PF 
loyalists.  Given this continuing assault, it is hardly 
surprising that the opposition party may be reconsidering its 
participation in local elections.  Tsvangirai's mainstream 
faction of the MDC could choose to extend its electoral 
boycott to include the nationwide urban council elections 
scheduled for August, elections in which it would otherwise 
likely do very well.  However, this approach carries risks 
for ZANU-PF as well.  They will now have to take direct 
responsibility for providing city services in both Mutare and 
Chitungwiza.  In Harare, the commission has performed poorly 
and has further undermined the ruling party,s popularity in 
the capital.  Residents have taken to calling Harare 
&pothole city.8  We may very well see this pattern repeated 
in the country,s other urban areas. 
DELL