Chitungwiza to build new offices

Lovemore Meya Herald Correspondent
Chitungwiza Municipality is mulling the construction of new offices at the Town Centre at an estimated cost of $2 million, an official has said. This will see the local authority moving from the school premises it is currently operating from to a modern complex.

Council has been using a primary school in Zengeza 2 as its head office since the 1970s. Chairperson of the caretaker commission running the affairs of Chitungwiza Municipality, Mr Madzudzo Pawadyira, said it was time that council got down to serious business.

“We want to construct a Civic Centre because a council worth its salt cannot conduct its business within a school set-up,” he said. “This is a school and it should be used for the purpose for which it was built.

“A site has already been identified and what we are hoping to do now is to engage the Ministry of Local Government (Public Works and National Housing) so that they assist us in getting a high profile personality who will assist us in conducting the ground-breaking ceremony.

“The site and the drawings are there and the matter was approved in our budget. It has been a result of consultation with the residents and both parties agreed that we should have a Civic Centre.”

Mr Pawadyira said the construction was likely to be a joint effort with other stakeholders.

“We await development on that issue and the project is estimated at over $2 million. We are hoping that we can cut costs through community participation. We also would want to explore the possibility of using the army building brigade. They have proved to be very effective in other projects where they were engaged by Government departments and parastatals. We wish to follow the same example,” he said.

Mr Pawadyira said the groundwork should be starting anytime soon.

“I am triggering the process,” he said. “We do communicate with the ministry (Local Government, Public Works and National Housing) every month in terms of our reports. We are hoping to plant our seed and that it will fall on fertile soil.”