admin
Lovemore Chazingwa
KADOMA mayor councillor Nigel Ruzario has taken a swipe at residents’ associations in the city that take to social media to voice concerns but, shy away from fora created for live interaction.
The mayor made these remarks in his closing delivery at a budget stakeholder engagement meeting held in the city recently.
Only one residents’ association, the newly formed Kadoma City Community Residents Association was fully represented at the meeting.
A shadowy member of the Kadoma Residents Association, Lame Madziva, only came briefly to blast the flagship presentation by director of financial services Faustina Zhou.
The member left in a huff without even exuding the patience to wait for a response from his stinging contribution.
Greater Kadoma Residents and Ratepayers Association, Progressive Kadoma Residents Association and Combined Kadoma Residents Association are other groupings that were established to champion the cause of residents and ratepayers in the city.
At the end of the deliberations during the baseline meeting, Ruzario highlighted that as the meeting was proceeding, some resident associations were posting messages on social media platforms instead of physically presenting themselves at the Indaba.
“We would like to engage as the council.
“However, some of the residents’ representative bodies prefer to communicate on social media platforms. As we finish our deliberations today, it’s not surprising that we will get a lot of online interaction from the very people we invited as organizational representatives. That may not suffice in our efforts to make Kadoma our better home. They prefer to engage on social media,” he said expressing marked disappointment.
Facilitated by the Public Service Commission (PSC), the meeting was represented by a cross-section of sectors including government departments, religion, councillors, SMEs, informal traders, individual residents, businesses, management, and members of the media among notable others.
The meeting is a build to the local authority’s 2025 annual budget which is to be presented to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development by October 15 this year.
Online Reporter