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CAN the Bulawayo City Council still claim to be the best run local authority in the country? We ask this pertinent question with genuine concern and alarm at the growing frequency of reports of alleged underhand dealings and culture of impunity that is slowly pervading the once efficiently-run council.In a country where the majority of councils run by the opposition MDC-T have failed to deliver and are tainted with corruption allegations, the BCC has stood out as a beacon of hope in a sea of mediocrity. Despite the obvious handicap of a lack of resources to offer a satisfactory service to residents, the BCC has scored a number of successes chief among which is a water and sewer reticulation system that is second to none. Bulawayo is also one of the cleanest cities in the country and its roads are better than those in other cities and towns.
It has functional clinics and has maintained infrastructure such as schools, recreational halls, stadia, beerhalls, parks and other social amenities on a shoestring budget. In May last year, the BCC bought road rehabilitation equipment worth more than $1 million to improve the city’s road network, a remarkable feat considering that the city is struggling to collect revenue from ratepayers who are failing to keep up with their payments due to the economic challenges.
Following the commissioning of the machinery, steady progress has been made in rehabilitating major roads in the city and we applaud the council for this. Street lighting and the drainage system still need to be attended to and we are confident, resources permitting, the city fathers will look into them. Bulawayo was also largely untouched by the salarygate scandal where some local authorities were paying senior management astronomical salaries at the expense of service delivery.
In a nutshell, the BCC has to all intents and purposes, been blemish-free which is why we are very concerned by reports of malfeasance involving a number of tenders and land deals. Last week, we reported elsewhere on these pages a call by the Bulawayo Progressive Residents’ Association for all city councillors to be investigated for alleged abuse of office after they approved a deal for two of their colleagues to acquire two blocks of high value residential stands with a combined value of nearly $300,000.
Ward 7 councillor, James Sithole and his ward 9 counterpart Charles Moyo, applied and were awarded town house stands in Parklands suburb measuring 3,7 hectares and 2,3 hectares valued at $184,000 and $112,000 respectively. BPRA co-ordinator Rodrick Fayayo said most councillors are not gainfully employed but can afford to buy properties worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, raising questions about how they managed to raise those huge sums of money.
“BPRA is concerned that the latest development may be a sign of rent seeking and abuse of office by councillors who are using their time in office to enrich themselves instead of representing residents and advancing the development of Bulawayo. BPRA has in the past received complaints from residents that councillors were taking over public toilets and had (also) assumed ownership of car parks and housing stands.’’
This latest development is an indication that all these concerns have been genuine, and that there is a need to ensure that councillors are not corruptly accumulating properties. “Last year there were reports that the Deputy Mayor Councillor Gift Banda had acquired 3,5 hectares of land for the construction of town houses. This led to a public outcry after there were allegations that the land, part of Ascot Racecourse, had been bought for less than its actual value,” Fayayo said.
Yesterday, our sister paper, The Sunday News, reported that the government has threatened to cancel the $60 million Egodini terminus upgrade project and order a re-tender after allegations that some senior council officials were linked to the South African company which won the tender.
Mayor Councillor Martin Moyo confirmed that the government was concerned that Deputy Mayor Gift Banda is linked to Terracotta Private Limited — the company refurbishing Egodini. Banda is also allegedly fingered in various corruption allegations. We acknowledge that none of the allegations against Banda have been proved and therefore give him the benefit of the doubt that his deals are above board.
However, we are worried about the growing culture of rent seeking behaviour and abuse of office which seems to be rife in council corridors. Councillors seem to be on a mission to amass as much wealth as possible before the next elections and at the rate at which land is being parcelled out for a song among the city fathers, Bulawayo will soon run out of land for housing development.
We call on authorities to institute an investigation into these land deals to establish if the councillors are abusing their positions to enrich themselves. We also urge council to come clean on the Egodini project and avail all the necessary documentation to the government so that it can verify whether the tender was awarded to the right company.
Online Reporter