The City of Kwekwe has a new mayor and deputy after Councillor Angeline Kasipo and her deputy Melody Chingarande both MDC Alliance were recalled last month by the Douglas Mwonzora-led MDC-T.
Ward 2 Councillor Future Titora was elected the new Kwekwe mayor while her Ward 3 counterpart Pikurai Msipha was elected deputy at a special full council meeting held in the council chambers on Thursday.
Chingarande was recalled days after being elected to replace the late Shadreck Tobaiwa who succumbed to cancer.
Cllr Titora garnered six votes to narrowly beat Ward 7 councillor Charles Juta who had four votes in the second round after the first round of voting resulted in a stalemate after each received five votes.
Cllr Msipha also won by the same number of votes and in a similar fashion to beat Joshua Tinago.
In her acceptance speech, newly elected Mayor Titora said she will work hard to develop the city. She said:
I pledge to play the oversight role as expected of us and complement management efforts to develop our city.
I urge all councillors to stop bickering and put differences aside as we work towards achieving vision 2030.
Kwekwe District Development Coordinator Fortune Mpungu who presided over the election of the mayor said service delivery and implementation of the devolution agenda should come first.
Kwekwe City had 14 councillors but only 10 are left after the death of Tobaiwa and the recalling of Kasipo, Chingarande and Ward 12 councillor Washington Moyo.
Of the 10, nine were elected on an MDC Alliance ticket and one was sponsored by the ruling ZANU PF party.