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Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council yesterday started their 2018 budget review and 2019 budget consultation programme as they seek to have residents participate more in council programmes.
The consultation programme will culminate in the holding of a breakfast meeting at one of the city’s hotels on Tuesday.
The breakfast meeting will see the coming together of captains of industry in the city and other key stakeholders to get their views on the city’s budgetary process.
The local authority’s senior public relations officer, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu, said it was important for residents to take the budget review and 2019 budget presentation seriously as that gave them an opportunity to participate in decision making processes for the city. She said the budget was key as it mapped the direction the city would take in the municipal year.
“We are doing budget consultations to review the 2018 budget and also present the 2019 budget. It’s important for residents to be part of the consultation process as they are able to input into the 2018 budget and also participate in the decision making for the city. The budget has an impact on service delivery of the city and their contributions help guide on way forward. We encourage residents to fully participate as they are key in inputting priorities for next year’s budget and also contributing on areas of service delivery they wish to see being done in the next year,” she said.
The council spokesperson said the consultation meetings in the wards will come to an end today and will be facilitated by the various ward councillors. The local authority will also meet youths and women, tomorrow and on Tuesday respectively.
Meanwhile, various Members of National Assembly in Bulawayo have started engaging the constituencies they represent with the prospect of formulating constituency development committees.
Njube-Lobengula MP, Mr Gift Banda revealed that he met his constituency a couple of weeks ago to map the way forward now that elections are over. He said it is time to set aside political differences and work as a team in developing the constituency.
“As you know that I was born and bred in Njube-Lobengula therefore when I look at the constituency I don’t look at it through political lenses but through those of development. We are now all talking development and I am happy during our meeting people from various parties attended.
“The idea is to form these constituency development committees which will oversee key matters such as the Constituency Development Fund and other key priorities within the constituency. We have also agreed on continuous meetings with residents so as to keep each other updated on Government programmes,” said Mr Banda, a former Bulawayo deputy mayor.
Makokoba MP, Mr James Sithole revealed that he had already started working on setting up a constituency consultative and development forum made of residents from his constituency, noting that these will be selected on a non-partisan basis to encourage inclusivity.
“We are working on setting up a permanent ward and constituency consultative and development forum made up of about 100 representatives of various stakeholders from each ward, these are people that we are going to be engaging with on a monthly basis.
“Most importantly we want to avoid taking this matter from a partisan point because right now it’s all about development, Makokoba constituency has a lot of areas that have to be addressed and I have told residents that instead of a top down way of interaction I will create a situation where they will be telling me which programmes to prioritise, it will be all about consultation,” said Mr Sithole.
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