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Midlands Reporters
THE Gweru City Council could not access a $400,000 road fund from Zinara after management failed to utilise about $80,000 it received from the previous allocation.
Residents and councillors have slated senior council staff whom they accuse of incompetence and mismanagement.
The council is expected to receive $400, 000 from Zinara this year but will only access it after providing proof of use of the $80, 000.
Residents’ associations have rapped management for failing to utilise the money despite the poor state of the road network, which is littered with potholes.
Gweru United Residents Association (GURA) acting director Davison Muduva demanded that council accounts for the money.
He said residents have approached the local authority over the matter.
“We’ve approached council over Zinara funds but they continue to be evasive over the issue. They’re failing to explain how they used the funds and we’re now beginning to suspect that they used them for other things other than what the money was intended for,” said Muduva.
Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association (GRRA) chairperson Cornilia Selipiwe accused council staff of having misplaced priorities.
He said it was surprising that roads were in a bad state yet council was sitting on $80,000.
“It’s not surprising that we’ve these things happening because they have misplaced priorities. The roads in the city are impassable yet we’ve a management that is always on the road to give themselves travel and subsistence allowances,” said Selipiwe.
Councillors have also taken management to task over Zinara funds with some coming short of calling for the sacking of acting head of Engineering Services Praymore Mhlanga.
Finance committee chairperson and Ward 4 Councillor Albert Chirau said Zinara funds were lying idle.
“What I want to find out from you Town Clerk (Daniel Matawu) is when was the last time you wrote a warning letter to one of your ‘comrades’ because it’s now a year since we received funds from Zinara but the money is still lying idle in the bank?” he asked Matawu during a recent full council meeting.
Clr Chirau said roads in the city were no longer passable.
“We’ve poor roads but someone is folding their hands in their office. This is unacceptable Mr Town Clerk and we should see heads rolling if this kind of attitude to work continues”.
Ward 5 Clr Moses Marecha weighed in and called for performance based contracts for senior management.
“We can’t have a situation whereby a person just goes into the office and sits while he is doing nothing. There’s a need to draw contracts where one is paid based on their performance and if you can’t perform then council should not renew that contract,” he said.
Matawu could not respond to the questions posed by councillors and was rescued from the situation by the Mayor, Clr Hamutendi Kombayi who attributed the underutilisation of the road fund to the unavailability of a substantive director of Engineering Services.
“The problem is that we don’t have a substantive director of Engineering Services which has made it difficult for those in that office to plan properly,” said Clr Kombayi.
“You’re the very people who were clamouring for Engineer (Jones) Nanthambwe to resign and now that we no longer have someone substantive this is where it has come to.”
The local authority has been operating without a director of engineering services since 2013 following the forced resignation of the then director, Eng Nanthambwe.
Eng Mhlanga has been the acting director for the department since the beginning of the year.
Online Reporter