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Walter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
MASVINGO City councillors have resolved to engage local universities to assist in crafting the city’s masterplan.
Council has in the last six years failed to come up with the document, due to lack of local consultants with the requisite skills and dithering by some foreign experts.
Speaking during a full council meeting on Tuesday, Ward 10 councillor Mr Sengerai Manyanga said the local authority should use local universities instead of waiting for foreign consultants who are expensive.
“I think the issue of a masterplan should be resolved once and for all. There is no need to look for foreign consultants when we have our universities who can do the job at even (more) affordable rates,” he said.
He deplored the lacklustre approach taken by the council management in addressing important matters and called on the city fathers to treat the issue of a masterplan seriously.
“If Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) and Midlands State University (MSU) were given the task to do a masterplan for Tugwi-Mukosi Dam and they did it successfully, why are we not engaging them?” said Cllr Manyanga.
“It seems we are not giving this issue the attention it deserves. My conviction is that a masterplan serves as a cog in the development matrix of our city, hence the need to expedite its crafting.
“If we continue like this, we risk completing our tenure as councillors without crafting the masterplan”.
Town Clerk, Mr Adolf Gusha acknowledged the delay in coming up with a development plan for the city and referred the matter to the public works and planning committee for deliberation.
“I can agree this issue has taken long before it has been resolved. I cannot say whether it is prudent to utilise the expertise that our local universities have or not.
“I would refer the matter back to the relevant committee of public works and planning.
“The committee should come up with a position, considering that the Urban Development Corporation which had offered to assist us lacked internal expertise,” said Mr Gusha.
Public works and planning committee chairman Deputy Mayor Cllr Wellington Mahwende said the completion of the masterplan was long overdue.
“We need to work with haste to finish such important projects on time. There is also another hot issue of the US$2million unfinished trunk sewer pipeline. We can take it upon ourselves to complete the project instead of waiting for a loan facility from National Social Security Authority (NSSA) which seems elusive,” he said.
The trunk sewer project, which was initiated in 2011, was abandoned in 2012 by the contractor, citing depletion of resources.
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