adminPaul Pindani in CHINHOYI
AUTHORITIES at Chinhoyi Municipality were shocked when residents besieged their premises protesting over high tariffs.
The Council, which is led by Maxwell Kaitano, a lawyer by profession, got a rude awakening when residents, led by Chinhoyi Residents Association (CRA), registered their dismay on Friday.
CRA chairman Clifford Hlupeko highlighted a myriad of concerns facing the residents, such as the unavailability of clean running water, non-functional street lights and uncollected garbage.
Hlupeko said his association, and other stakeholders such as ZNOART, who sympathised with the residents, rejected the high tariffs.
“We demand a people-driven council that responds to the needs of the people.
“The Kaitano-led council has thrown the residents back to the primitive world, where the community fetch water from open wells, which expose them to waterborne diseases,” he said.
Hlupeko said the ouncil hired Tarcon Construction to resurface roads but the company did a poor job.
“It lacks capacity. I don’t even know what have they seen in the Tarcon Construction
“We have become a laughing stock as a town,” said Hlupeko.
He added: “How then do we put in millions of dollars and have poor service?
“This is the reason why the residents came here to demand that we need proper service delivery and we want the rates to come down so that we can pay what is affordable,”
Hlupeko had no kind words for the local authority as he put them on notice to either shape up or ship out.
ZNAORT Mashonaland West chairman Liberty Chitiya, weighed in saying the new billing system was fraught with illegalities.
“The whole process is fraught with illegalities,” said Chitiya.
He said the council has not been sincere on the issue of rebasing. Rebasing was done on June 7 this year, during a full council meeting, then given to residents as a notice on June 23.
“What were they doing?
“They were tampering with our approved 2022 budget without consultations with stakeholders.”
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter