BULAWAYO – Bulawayo mayor David Coltart has dismissed reports claiming the city’s Town Clerk, Christopher Dube, has been handed a new contract, describing the reports as “entirely incorrect” and based on an “illegal” meeting.
In a statement issued on Friday, Coltart said the media reports published on November 17 and 20 contained “numerous errors,” including claims that council had met on November 19 and voted to grant Dube a fresh term.
“There was no meeting of council on the 19th of November… At no time in my presence was a vote taken in this regard,” Coltart said.
He also rejected as false the allegation that he walked out after councillors voted to extend the Town Clerk’s contract.
Coltart said the only lawful position remains that Dube is on a fixed one-year-two-month contract signed on October 10, 2024, which ends on November 30, 2025.
The mayor detailed months of internal disputes over whether Statutory Instrument 197 of 2024 — which raised the retirement age for public servants to 70 — applies to senior council officials on fixed-term deals.
He said extending contracts on that basis could set a dangerous precedent, allowing employees “aged 30… to demand employment until reaching 70,” creating major financial strain.
The matter was referred to the General Purposes Committee, but Coltart says some councillors were intimidated by third parties and failed to attend crucial meetings. In one session, he alleges, the Town Clerk “threatened me… in the presence of the human resources director and the deputy mayor,” before later apologising in writing.
On October 27, Coltart says the General Purposes Committee unanimously agreed on a compromise: a one-year contract extension for Dube, while seeking legal guidance from the Attorney General on whether SI 197/2024 applies to fixed-term contracts. That recommendation was tabled before full council on November 5.
But the meeting, he says, “rapidly degenerated into total disorder,” with councillors trading insults and threats.
“It was impossible to have a free and fair debate… I adjourned the meeting,” he said, invoking council standing orders.
After he left, a group of councillors allegedly held an “illegal meeting” where they purported to extend the Town Clerk’s contract by five years.
Coltart says several councillors later told him they felt “under grave intimidation” during that gathering.
“The ‘resolution’ purportedly passed… is illegal and of no force and effect,” Coltart said, adding that the leaking of internal documents to a local newspaper was a “red line” that prompted him to go public.
The mayor said the city’s General Purposes Committee remains committed to resolving the issue lawfully, but warned that “personal interests” and a “climate of fear, threats and intimidation” were undermining governance at City Hall.
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