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Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
THE government has directed district administrators in Bulawayo to oversee the rehabilitation exercise being conducted by different companies in preparation for the forthcoming African Union (AU) Region Five Youth Games following an outcry that people from Bulawayo were not benefiting from the exercise.
The games will be held in the province in December this year.
Bulawayo Provincial Administrator Khonzani Ncube, who is also the Youth Games local organising committee chairperson, yesterday told Chronicle that district administrators had been tasked with overseeing the whole programme and ensure companies involved in the exercise hire local people for manual work.
“This is a national programme where companies from different parts of the country have been contracted to work towards the rehabilitation of certain infrastructure ahead of the games. The companies were advised on paper to consider hiring local people for manual work,” said Ncube.
“We, however, received complaints that the people of Bulawayo were not benefiting from the exercise and we have since engaged district administrators to oversee the process and ensure transparency and fairness.”
Ncube said the district administrators would work with district development committees and relevant partners, including the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.
“The district administrators would be the overall chairpersons of the district development committees, which are multi sectoral in representation. This will ensure that there is fairness and equitable distribution of available resources to the people of Bulawayo.
“Bulawayo is hosting the youth games and we want the people from the province to own this event and benefit from the opportunities that it brings. We want to create employment for the people of Bulawayo,” said Ncube.
Bulawayo Residents Association (Bura) chairperson Winos Dube said it was important for the government to intervene and ensure that the people of Bulawayo benefit from the youth games.
“When it was announced that the youth games would be held in Bulawayo, we welcomed the decision with excitement because we expected the people of Bulawayo to benefit from the event considering that most people do not have jobs,” said Dube.
“The companies that won the tenders should seriously consider employing the people of Bulawayo for the menial jobs because they deserve to benefit from the opportunities that are brought by such events.”
Last week, scores of jobless people confronted Harare-based construction companies who won tenders to rehabilitate the city’s stadia accusing them of importing labour while sidelining them.
Acting director for quantity surveying in the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Mike Dzimati told Bulawayo businesspeople during a meeting last month that people from the Matabeleland region did not understand tender procedures and needed to be educated in that regard.
He said the Bulawayo business community had itself to blame for failing to win tenders for the youth games.
derick.khumalo