Emmanuel Chiroto was the deputy mayor of

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. In the March 2008 election, the

Movement for Democratic Change Movement for Democratic Change or MDC may refer to: * Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T), the former main opposition party in Zimbabwe ** Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai Congress 2006, the second MDC–T congress ...

(MDC) won 45 of the 46 local council seats in Harare. Chiroto, who is a member of the MDC was elected as Mayor of Harare by the councillors on June 15.

Ignatius Chombo Ignatius Morgen Chiminya Chombo (born 1 August 1952) is a Zimbabwean politician who was Finance Minister of Zimbabwe in 2017. Previously he has served in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe as Minister of Home Affairs from 2015 to 2017, Minister of Local G ...

, the Minister of Local Government, had not sworn in the new local administrations, and because the elected Harare councillors were not allowed to meet at Harare's Town House, they met elsewhere to elect Chiroto. On the night of June 16, Chiroto's house in the suburb of Hatcliffe was attacked and destroyed by ZANU-PF supporters; Chiroto believed that petrol bombs were used. Chiroto's wife, Abigail, and his four-year-old son were taken away by the attackers, although his son was delivered to a police station on June 16.Peta Thornycroft
"Harare mayor's family abducted"
''Daily News'', South Africa (''IOL''), June 18, 2008, page 3. Chiroto himself was not present when the attack occurred.Tererai Karimakwenda

SW Radio Africa (allAfrica.com), June 25, 2008. His wife was later found murdered on June 18, 2008 at a farm in outlying Borrowdale. Chiroto went into hiding following this incident.

References

Mayors of Harare Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Harare city councillors {{Zimbabwe-mayor-stub