[5] A prominent businessman and lawyer, Masunda was elected unanimously by the Harare council on 2 July 2008 for a five-year term after Emmanuel Chiroto, an MDC member who was previously elected executive mayor by the MDC-majority council on 15 June, voluntarily stood down from the mayoralty and accepted the position of deputy mayor, after allegations that his wife was captured and tortured by Zanu-PF youth.
Masunda is the first non-MDC member to take office as mayor since before the election of Elias Mudzuri in 2002, and chooses not to be associated with any political party.
Masunda claimed that: "The police are simply trying to build up a fraud case on the basis of false information supplied by the ZIC and reports published in The Herald.
This is one of many reforms agreed to by Zanu-PF and the two Movement for Democratic Change factions (MDC-T and MDC-M) after the Southern African Development Community negotiations, offering a more ceremonial mayor.
[6] Masunda has stated that he will use his business connections to improve the service delivery of the city, such as water provision, roads, grass cutting, traffic and streetlights, and refuse collection.