Chronicle Editor
Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
Gweru City Council (GCC) scooped the best local authority in service delivery Award at the recent Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) much to the delight of management and councillors.
Exhibitors at the 2021 ZITF were honoured for displaying outstanding products and services at the country’s premier multi-sectoral trade showcase.
Guest of honour and ZITF patron, President Mnangagwa presented trophies and shields to winners.
The award for GCC was under the Civic Participation which saw the local authority walking away with the Golden Jubilee Trophy and ZITF gold medal.
Under the same category, second place went to City of Mutare and third place went to City of Harare.
In an interview yesterday, Gweru public relations officer, Ms Vimbai Chingwaramusee said the award was an indication that GCC is hands on in improving service delivery.
“It is an honour to have received the first prize under the Civil Participation category as the best local authority in the country at the just ended ZITF. As a local authority, we are honoured to be awarded this award ahead of other local authorities in the country,” she said.
“To us it’s an honour and it shows that we are doing good as a local authority and we hope that and we know we will definitely ensure that the city of Gweru becomes a sustainable city of choice by the year 2030 no doubt. For us it means we are doing good and we should continue doing good.”
Ms Chingwaramusee said hard work paid well for them adding that they wanted to put the city on the international map to attract investment.
“What made us come tops is pure hard work and dedication of our 2021 ZITF team. Despite limited financial resources we worked hard to ensure that the City of Gweru is among those cities who get the golden medal at the ZITF. The main reason was because we want to put Gweru on the international map,” she said.
Ms Chingwaramusee called on investors to consider investing in the city which she said is open for business.
“And that’s the main reason we exhibited at the ZITF. We are calling for investors to come and invest in Gweru to ensure that we become a sustainable prosperous city of choice by 2030 while ensuring that Zimbabwe becomes an upper middle-income economy by 2030. The award shows we can do good. It shows we can improve the status quo of Gweru and Zimbabwe at large. Thus, this award is a reflection of us when we say we are open for business,” she said.
Ms Chingwaramusee said they exhibited a new look city which is adapting to the new normal under Covid-19 pandemic.
“The theme of the ZITF was adapting to the new normal which is Covid-19. So we have adapted by digitalising our operations and we are working to ensure that all council operations are digital,” she said.
“In terms of investment opportunities, we have interests in mining, our civic centre is also open for business, Go Beer breweries. We have already reopened Kudzanayi Long Distance Bus terminus and we are working on Ivene, Kombayi and Mtapa markets.”
She said the local authority is in the process of rehabilitating roads using the emergency road rehabilitation funds from Government.
“We are also ensuring that we rehabilitate street lights in the central business district and we are also moving to residential areas. Refuse collection has been good so far. We are collecting refuse following the schedule so far, our trucks are enough. However, we need to increase more skip bins,” said Ms Chingwaramusee.
In an interview, Ms Doreen Dzamatira, ZITF marketing and corporate communications officer said during the just-ended ZITF they ran over 20 sector competitions to recognise exceptional efforts put in by stand directors and their teams to deliver quality exhibition offerings.
The aim of the competitions, she said is to motivate marketing and public relations practitioners to excel when it comes to stand designs and exhibition strategy to ensure that they maximise on potential returns of their participation.
“The judging criteria includes overall impression of the stand, originality of the stand displays and the quality of personnel on the stand (attitude, presentation and company/product knowledge). The objective is to reward exhibitors for the thought, planning and resources which have gone into the execution of their exhibition strategy,” said Ms Dzamatira.
She said ZITF awards by their nature recognise and reward the actual exhibition display which a participant would have put up, hence even the coining of the name Best Zimbabwe Exhibit: Civic Participation.
“We are not qualified to and do not purport to judge marketplace performance. We can only hope that the service excellence displayed during the trade show is indicative of the organisation’s culture aspirations and is not simply just for the show,” said Ms Dzamatira.
She said 15 local authorities participated in this particular competition and the City of Gweru scooped first prize.
“City of Mutare and City of Harare came second and third respectively,” she said.
Online Reporter