adminTawanda Mangoma in Chiredzi
Ratepayers have tabled a list of demands they want Chiredzi Town Council to attend to first before ending a prolonged rates boycott that has seen arrears to the local authority shooting to more than $10 million. The rates boycott by residents and the business community has paralysed service delivery in the sugarcane growing town where council is battling to supply adequate water and collect refuse.
Residents’ representatives, the business community and public transport operators early this week met and compiled a list of demands they want addressed by Chiredzi Town Council before normalisation of relations.
Besides attending to perennial water woes, the stakeholders also want transparency in the tendering of council projects and a solution to the salary backlog owed to workers dating back to a year ago.
United Chiredzi Residents and Ratepayers Association secretary-general Mr Benard Dhachi said they wanted the new team of councillors to reverse issuance of a council Toyota D4D vehicle to the chair in the previous council, Mr Francis Moyo.
“So much hide and seek has bedevilled the relationship between council and its stakeholders,” he said.
“As residents, we demand a forensic audit that will look at the way business was conducted by the previous council.
“We want to know how land sales were conducted and how council conducts tendering of its projects, especially for road repairs, for water and sanitation projects. Right now we are paying for mistakes which the town engineering department continues to do.
“We cannot afford the flamboyance of our top management which only needs us when they do budget consultations to purchase new vehicles, but nicodemusly agree to dispose of our vehicles.’’
The same sentiments were echoed by Chiredzi Residents and Ratepayers Association chair Mr Jonathan Muusha, who said local companies were supposed to benefit from tenders in the sugar-producing town.
Online Reporter