Council claims against Govt refuted

Ivan Zhakata
Herald Correspondent
THE corruption-riddled Harare City council has been accused of fabricating falsehoods by alleging that the Government blocked its bid to hire more staff to improve cleaning services.

Chairperson of the human resources and general purposes committee, Ward 41 councillor Kudzai Kadzombe, said the acting Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Kirsty Coventry, had blocked council’s bid to recruit drain cleaners, grass cutters and street cleaners.

The Government has dismissed the allegations as malicious falsehoods peddled to put its name into disrepute.

Mr Webster Mukwati, communications and advocacy officer in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, said they had never received any letter from council.

“The Minister did not receive any letter from the City of Harare on the recruitment of drain cleaners, grass cutters and street cleaners and she has never written to council pertaining to that,” he said.

“They (council) are trying to drag the Minister’s name into disrepute. We have not received anything from the council and we have never refused to sign any letter from council.”

Cllr Kadzombe had said that council was currently carrying out drain cleaning, catch pits cleaning, grass cutting, pipe drain de-blocking and spoil removal citywide but their efforts were being hampered by a shortage of manpower.

She said council had engaged the parent ministry, the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, seeking approval to employ drain cleaners, grass cutters and street cleaners under a ministerial directive she described as against the spirit of devolution.

“The ministry requested justification for the need for those specific workers, and despite providing the justification to the ministry, it is still to respond. After frequent follow-ups with the Ministry we have been advised that Minister July Moyo is on leave and the acting Minister Kirsty Coventry refused to approve.

“Once the city has been cleared to recruit, it will expedite the process. It must however, be noted that the city is not resting on its laurels over the matter. The drain clearance is a recurrent routine exercise which is carried out throughout the year, primarily because of the behaviour of the general citizenry and vendors who have a tendency of using catch pits as litter pits,” Cllr Kadzombe said.

In December last year, council admitted that it was failing to render adequate service delivery to the city and in some instances, Government had to intervene to address the challenges.

This came as the city is faced with serious water challenges, poor public lighting, burst sewer pipes, and non-collection of refuse which has resulted in the emergence of illegal dumpsites, construction on wetlands and failure to refurbish roads among others, much to the anger of residents.