The coronation of the new Mayor to the city of Addis Abeba is approaching; the ‘fire fighter’ Mayor of the past three troubled years will hand over the city’s key on May 20, 2008, to the person the Revolutionary Democrats trusts will transform the City Administration. This will be a day after the National Electoral Board announces the all too obvious election results to the city government. From all the indications all over the gossip corridor, Kuma Demeksa will be the next mayor of Addis Abeba, which will have a Council and a Cabinet, including a management team.

The Council, which is 99.9pc dominated by the Revolutionary Democrats, will be led by Aster Mamo, who will be resigning from her position as Minister of Youth and Sport, to serve as a speaker. It will not be an unfamiliar job for she has had a similar job at a regional council in the past. Aster is believed to have a cordial working relationship with Kuma, a relationship developed when both were serving at the Oromia Regional Council (Chefie Oromia), a few years ago. Both still serve as directors of the Board of Jimma University, where Kuma is a Chairman.

The departures of Kuma, to date a minister of Defence, and Aster from their positions in the Federal Government will certainly leave a couple of cabinet portfolios vacant. Not surprisingly, this has led gossip corridors to speculate over a significant cabinet reshuffling, including the replacement of the Governor at the Central Bank, whose resignation many at gossip corridor believe is long overdue. Others seriously doubt whether there will be reshuffling at the cabinet. For instance, the ministerial position in Defence, where two of the state ministers had left in the past three years, will remain open, only to be run by one state minister responsible for the logistics and procurement and the chief of staff, according to gossip.  

The management of the city’s business is meant to be left to professionals who know how to run municipal affairs. After the unproductive and boring years of Ali Abdo, the Revolutionary Democrats learnt a lesson that they should not necessarily mix political administration with municipal management. As a result, the city had two professionals - Tesfa-michael Nahusenay and Zemedkun Girma - appointed as general managers, respectively, during Arkebe Oqubay’s time, and Wubishet Brehanu (PhD) for the Caretaker Administration.

Gossip corridors anticipate that this practice is to be upheld during the reign of Kuma. The new administration is contemplating installing Feleke Yimer, the current deputy manager of the City Administration, as its General Manager, claims gossip. Nevertheless, many of the Bureau Chiefs in the City Administration will be coming from each of the parties in the ruling coalition. There is already a visible migration of politicians displaced from their hold in Oromia South, Tigray and Amhara regional states.

In fact, it was Melaku Fanta, a vibrant young man from Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), who was thought would assume the position of Deputy Mayor. After serving for many years at the Prime Minister’s office, he had run to the City Council, together with his comrades from the ruling coalition. At the same time, a process of reform has brought his Ministry of Revenues back into an authority, which was one more reason for gossip corridors to speculate about his future in the city Cabinet.

Something odd and unexpected happened at the last minute, claims gossip. The Revolutionary Democrats were busy over the past two weeks debating whether he should assume this position. They seem to have agreed that Melaku should pursue his ambition of seeing the reform process at the Ministry of Revenues go through, instead of turning himself into a city technocrat.

This has forced the Revolutionary Democrats to a last minute scramble and negotiation to find a replacement. The manhunt will continue this week, according to gossip.