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Municipal Reporters
WITH complaints mounting from ratepayers over the delayed budget consultations announcement, the Harare City Council yesterday introduced virtual pre-budget consultations for residents to offer their input.
Ratepayers feared an imposed budget as council attributed delays in the consultation process to the Covid-19 lockdown measures which prohibit physical gatherings.
Only 50 people are allowed per meeting under the lockdown rules and it would be an onerous task to conduct physical consultations as each ward has at least 30 000 residents.
Council yesterday live streamed its mid-year 2020 budget performance on its Facebook Page and also pioneered the virtual 2021 budget consultations.
City of Harare spokesperson Mr Michael Chideme said a timetable for the virtual consultations would be announced.
“Virtual interactions with our stakeholders have been ongoing but for the 2021 budget, we are producing a specific timetable for that. The timetable will segment various targeted groups,” he said.
Harare Residents Trust director, Mr Precious Shumba had queried council’s reluctance to initiate the virtual budget consultations. He said as per the requirements of Statutory Instrument (SI) 135 of 2019, all budgets were supposed to be submitted to the Minister of Local Government and Public Works by August 31.
“Residents of Harare were wondering what the City of Harare was doing to comply with SI 135,” he said.
Mr Shumba called on the city to be pro-active and make use of technology as it was practically impossible to do physical consultations during this Covid-19 era.
Online Reporter