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Tsegaye Tuke, Hawass Mayor, is purged from Mayoral and party position – the ethnic Sidama Branch of the ruling Prosperity Party announced on Friday.
His official removal came after performance evaluation within the party. The ruling party alleges that the Mayor demonstrated incompetence and was involved in grand corruption – an allegation that is not verified by the independent party.
Entrance structure project in the city was cited as an example to demonstrate the cases of corruption against the Mayor. The spending was said to be about 90 million Ethiopian birr but audit findings estimated the cost to be only 30 million – this case was raised at the performance evaluation of the party.
From the party statement, the mayor was in attendance during the party evaluation. However, he declined to respond to address the question and left the meeting, it was said.
He has been in the position since 2020. In the same year he was elected to lead Ethiopian Cities Mayors Forum as Deputy Chairperson under the Chairwoman Adanech Abeibie – a forum that has 171 members.
The Ethiopian Media Forum has reported about it earlier this week about the development. Based on its report, there appears to be a political context to the removal of the mayor. The view that analysts reflect is that if it was about corruption, there is a possibility that most of the officials, if not all, would be facing justice. The head of the regional state, Desta Ledamo, himself is said to be worth over 86 million and is not known to have a business before he held the position and was earning as a civil servant. However, these allegations are unverified.
Two groups have emerged within the party – apparently including on political matters – and the one that got the upper hand had removed the mayor on alleged corruption charges. Cause of the political divide in the region- and among politicians – is not showing on the surface.
Tsegaye Tuke, at this writing, has not explained his position to the public. It is unclear if he is appearing in court either.
What is known is that Oromia region authorities are strong supporters of the powerful political elites in the Sidama region.
Sidama , with Hawassa as a seat, became an ethnic based region in 2019 after breaking away from what was then South Nation Nationalities and People’s Region – which is now defunct and further divided into two ethnic based regional states.
Tsegaye Tuke was the second mayor of Hawassa.
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