Beverly Bizeki
The newly elected Masvingo City Mayor Shantiel Chiwara has promised to arrest corruption in council as one of her major goals during her term following her election as top leader of the house.
25 year old Chiwara who is the councilor for ward 2 in Masvingo West was appointed mayor on September 19, 2023 after shrugging off competition from Zanu PF’s candidate Sharon Marombedze with 11 votes while the latter got only two votes.
“We are going to work towards a zero tolerance to corruption council as we move during our term in office so that we achieve things for a greater town and a greater city of Masvingo,” said Chiwara.
She also said she was going to look into other issues affecting the youth such as drug and substance abuse and rope in everyone in the fight to win the war.
“As a youthful leader, I am also going to look into things concerning drug abuse and early child marriages, we are going to stand together as this requires collective efforts from us.
“We will also look into the welfare of our workers to see that policies and rights to do with them are protected,” said Chiwara.
Chiwara also promised to work towards improving service delivery issues and lobby for equal opportunities for women and youth.
“We are going to look into issues concerning service delivery, to the youth and women, we say, we have a number of women in council so expect a vibrant voice from us, we are going to work towards getting the same opportunities for all,” she said.
Chiwara who is replacing Collen Maboke becomes the first female mayor for Masvingo City while at the same time she is believed to be among one of the youngest mayors in the country.
Ward 5 councilor Daniel Mberikunashe will be replacing Wellington Mawende as deputy mayor after he was kicked out in the parliamentary race for Masvingo urban constituency.
Chiwara is an investment banker by profession with a Bachelor’s Degree in Banking Investment from National University of Science and Technology (NUST) and is currently studying towards a Strategic Management Master’s Degree with Great Zimbabwe University (GZU)
She is the daughter of former deputy mayor James Chiwara, and won the chance to represent ward 2 in Masvingo West after the disqualification of Roki Kamuzonda and Frank Chirairo among others.
