adminMichael Magoronga Midlands Correspondent
The recently commissioned Gokwe Town House has brought smiles to the ratepayers as it has ushered in an improvement in service delivery by the local authority. The town house, built to the tune of $900 000, was commissioned by Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo last month during a colourful ceremony.
Consisting of 29 offices, the construction of the town house spanned six years as the cash-strapped local authority struggled with funding.
Before construction of the town house and civic centre, council officials were scattered in different parts of the town, making accountability difficult, while crippling service delivery.
Some ratepayers expressed gratification with the new civic centre, which they say has gone miles in improving service delivery in the town.
Mr Ronald Kugarisana of Mafungautsi said the civic centre has brought with it quality service delivery by the town council.
“We appreciate the effort by our council to build such infrastructure as it makes it easy for us to access services from the council. Before this structure, we would travel long distances to access different offices as they were strewn all over town. But now you can easily access them at one place,” he said.
Miss Loveness Moyana of Njelele also had praises for the town house, which he said lit up the town.
“We now have state-of-the-art buildings like the Government complex, the regional court and the town house. This makes me proud to be from Gokwe,” said Moyo.
Chief Njelele, in his speech during the official opening, said the town house did not only beautify the town, but also brought with it accountability.
“It was not easy for the council to conduct business. There was no accountability at all, but with this we expect change as we expect to receive the best service from the council,” said Chief Njelele.
Gokwe town secretary Ms Melania Mandeya said it was not easy for the cash-strapped council to fund the project.
“This is one project we had to make sure it has been completed despite the revenue inflow challenges being faced by the town council, which is, however, not peculiar to our town alone. We just had to ignore all that and allocate a minimum of $50 000 per year for the project and now it has been completed,” she said.
Ms Mandeya said the project was part of the councils’ quick wins, which the local authority set aside upon the ushering in of the new political dispensation.
“The project was part of our 100-day quick wins, where we targeted infrastructure development. The same project included upgrading of like schools, clinics and the town house, which was our main project,” said Ms Mandeya.
“We just had to part ways with the little that we came across. It was a painful situation where one officer, say the town secretary, would be housed at Government complex, town treasurer maybe at another office and the housing officer at another. It made service delivery difficult.”
Cash inflow has significantly improved as the town house came with it ease of doing business strategies.
“We have introduced ease of doing business, which makes it easy for our clients to conduct business with us, a move which has resulted in a boost in revenue collections,” said Ms Mandeya.
The project is in line with the town’s target of attaining municipal status by 2025.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter