By Panashe Kaseke
Citizens Coalition for Change Councillor in Masvingo, Shantel Chiwara broke new ground after being elected as the City’s first female Mayor.
Not only did she only break the record, Chiwara also became the youngest City leader at 25 years.
A banker by profession, daughter of the former Masvingo Deputy Mayor, Chiwara won the elections by 11 votes over Councilor Sharon Marombedze, a Zanu PF member who got 2 votes.
She took over from Collen Maboke a former ward councillor who was elected in office in 2010.
In an interview with Bustop TV Chiwara said her motive is to be a vibrant voice for the voiceless, to empower the girl child and to upgrade service delivery in Masvingo
“Girl child empowerment is one of the biggest issues personally would like to spear head and my fellow female colleagues intend to source from willing organizations and individuals so that we do campaigns and workshops to educate and empower the young ones.
“Also with a number of councillors being women in our council we are going to be a very vibrant voice for the women and the youth and make sure they get the same opportunities, get empowered in various ways and also make sure they are being heard,” she said.
The Mayor said they will work as a team to complement what the previous leadership did.
“As the first ever mother of the ancient city I’m now working in colaboration with other city councillors to bring a change in the city. As a team of councilors who have just been elected into office we understand there already were measures in place for the betterment of service delivery.
“We are there to ensure we proceed from where they left and also we bring to the table new ideas. We are one team and we are working together wel because we have one goal and that is to deliver to the citizens of Masvingo. We are helping each other with Ideas because have a lot to leam from each and everyone of our team My team and are working towards a better service delivery for the city of Masvingo. This is inline with issues concerning water and sanitation, litter, worker welfare amongst other things,” said Chiwara
Chiwara is among female poiticians that have scaled fofty heights, occupying influential positions after the August general elections
This is albeit a slight decrease of women candidates in the general elections as compared to 2018 plebiscite
Chiwara’s political journey began at a tender age and she was motivated by her family background.
“I began my journey around 2013 that is when i got my name written in the books of politics as got my position in the structures I went through the structures from branch to ward and from word to district untill was in the province. I was young back then but being bom from a political background made it easier. I was also motivated by my father who is a former deputy mayor of the city who served from 2013 to 2018 under the hack then MDCT and one of my mentors,” said Chiwara.
