admin
Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
“I AM a practical man who takes challenges as they come, I know the challenges ahead and solving them will just be to prove that I am a true man.”
These were the words of new Bulawayo Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube when asked on how he aims to restore the image of the city against the backdrop of a Government investigation report that exposed massive corruption.
Mr Dube was speaking during a media briefing that was held in the council chambers last Friday, where he refused to commit himself to the Government findings saying he was still trying to familiarise himself with the goings on at the local authority.
He, however, said from a layman’s perspective he believed the problem within the local authority was lack of communication between the local authority, councillors and residents associations.
“Before I was appointed the town clerk when I was an ordinary Bulawayo resident I felt all this chaos was caused largely by lack of communication where council in general was not attempting to communicate with their residents, let alone the residents associations who are key stakeholders within any other authority.
“Another gap is that between council staff and councillors, which the Minister (Saviour) Kasukuwere also noted, basing from my experience, in every local authority it is there but what can be done is to minimise it, I am thus going to ensure that our immediate task is to hold workshops where we will address these problems and ensure we get rid of all this friction,” said Mr Dube.
He said the only way out of the mess, noted by the Government was intense dialogue focusing on key areas identified in the investigation report. On his vision for the local authority, Mr Dube said while it was not going to be an easy road ahead the secret was to visualise the direction that the organisation should follow and achieve during his term of office. He said the city must strive for vibrancy in its economy for employment creation.
“We need to re-engineer the Bulawayo City Council into a strong city brand that can compete internationally. I would need to work towards strengthening the municipal administrative systems and processes. This of course would involve strategic re-engineering of the operations of the City of Bulawayo towards ensuring that the business processes enhance productivity.
The establishment of efficient financial cycles and improved quality of the services offered by the city will be my mandate,” said Mr Dube.
He revealed that among his immediate challenges which he was faced with was the city’s water situation revealing that it was unfortunate that he was starting at a time when the local authority had introduced water-shedding to conserve the available water supplies.
“It is our prayer as the city that this season would be much better and we would have enough water to cater for the needs of the residents. This month’s council meeting resolved that the city starts water-shedding. As at 6 October 2016 our dams were at 31,81 percent, a decrease from 24 August 2016 figure of 34,01 percent. Efforts to augment new water supplies into the city must be prioritised and realised.
“As the financial manager of the city the state of the city’s finances are of great concern as Bulawayo is virtually insolvent.
There is a need for pronounced attention to be paid on improving the city’s finances. Council can improve on service delivery if only residents pay their bills on time as they fall due,” said the town clerk. He also revealed that while they wanted to keep staff costs low he could not ignore that the city still suffered from under-staffing, especially within the health sector.
“I appreciate the need to keep staff costs low. However, there is a need to balance with optimum service delivery, especially directly providing service,” said Mr Dube.
He said while they have a number of experienced personnel it was unfortunate that a majority of them were due for retirement hence the need to recruit.
“Some of the challenges being faced by the city call on the residents to work with the municipality in ensuring effective and efficient services. Bulawayo was once known as one of the cleanest cities in Africa. That status was not only because of the role that the local authority played towards cleaning Bulawayo’s streets, but it was also a joint effort with the residents ensuring that they did not litter but kept the streets clean.
“The city’s infrastructure is old and is in need of rehabilitation. One of the key action points would be to try and obtain adequate funding that would rehabilitate the city’s infrastructure. Council is unable to borrow in order to address infrastructure dilapidation,” said Mr Dube.
@vusadb
Online Reporter