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Senior Reporter
THE term of office for local authority councillors across the country ends this week with Bulawayo residents describing the incumbent crop of city fathers as the worst since independence. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Urban and Rural Development, Mr Killian Mupingo, said the term of office for councillors across the country ends with that of Members of the House of Assembly on 29 June.
“Once the lifespan of Parliament ends there would not be any council to talk about.
“We are yet to officially communicate with councils on that issue but we will do so shortly,” said Mr Mupingo in an interview on Friday.
In separate interviews Bulawayo residents’ association leaders said the current crop of councillors left a lot to be desired.
Bulawayo United Residents Association (Bura) chairman Mr Winos Dube said the past four years had been a nightmare for residents.
“Generally this has been the worst council ever. We have never seen a leadership that has not appreciated people’s views like this one. As residents we are very disappointed with the performance of our councillors in terms of service delivery,” he said.
“We elected councillors to improve our lives but the first thing they did when they got power was to buy expensive vehicles for the mayor and council officials.
“A few days before their term of office ends, they are fighting over laptops. If I were to mark them I would give them 46 percent.”
Mr Dube said although council was able to address the problem of sewer pipe bursts, they failed dismally in areas such as housing, roads rehabilitation and refuse collection.
“The city’s roads are in a sorry state while refuse collection also remains poor. Provision of housing is the worst because apart from private developers council on its own has done nothing compared to more than 100 000 people on the housing waiting list.
“All we hear is confusion over tenders as if councillors cannot stamp their authority on their officials. This council leaves residents with a lot of unanswered questions,” said Mr Dube.
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (Bupra) chairman Mr Reason Ngwenya said the MDC-T dominated council has been tormenting residents from the time it got into office.
“If truth be told this has been a very bad term. These councillors have left residents with more debts than before. This has never happened,” said Mr Ngwenya.
“I do not think any of the residents would like to see the same crop of councillors again. If the same councillors come back it means residents would lose their houses because of council debts.”
He said council was expected to bring more improvement since it was earning hard currency from rentals and water charges.
Instead, said Mr Ngwenya, council prioritised awarding its officials hefty allowances and buying fancy cars for them.
“Residents believe councillors were out to enrich themselves. The only good thing they managed to do was to get allowances and print more bills for residents.
“Now they are talking of laptops for themselves when the social services have gone down to zero. This has been the worst council ever since I lived in Bulawayo,” said Mr Ngwenya.
“This is election but the truth must be told so that whoever comes into office after polls knows what the residents expect.”
Bulawayo Mayor and Ward 22 Councillor Thaba Patrick Moyo, who has lost his party’s council primary elections to Mr Rodney Donovan Jele, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
A majority of residents have had their property attached by council over debts until Government intervened by ordering council to stop auctioning people’s property.
The council on one hand has been citing poor revenue inflows as the reason behind its failure to render adequate service delivery.
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