Kwekwe councillors sworn in

THE three newly elected councillors for Kwekwe City Council were sworn in on Tuesday and pledged to fulfil President Mnangagwa’s vision of improving service delivery at local government level in line with Vision 2030.

Kwekwe Town Clerk Dr Lucia Mnkandla presided over the swearing-in of councillors Tapiwanashe Muganhu (Ward 5), Maxwell Juda (Ward 9) and Solomon Matsa (Ward 10) who were all elected on Zanu-PF ticket.

The election of the councillors comes after the recalling of three Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) councillors, who include former mayor, Dr Henry Madzorera, former deputy mayor Melody Chingarande and Simon Machisvo who was the chief whip for the opposition-dominated council.

Kwekwe has 10 councillors from the opposition and six from Zanu-PF. Another proportional representation councillor, Helena Mkosana passed on in January this year and her position is still vacant.

In interviews after being sworn in, the three councillors pledged to fulfil President Mnangagwa’s vision of transforming the economy into an upper middle-income economy by 2030 through improving services.

“We are the ones who work with the people on a day-to-day basis and we are expected to deliver. We look forward to improving people’s livelihoods through improved service delivery,” said Dr Matsa.

Clr Muganhu said the council’s priority should be the rehabilitation of roads.

“Just recently, Minister Owen Ncube was in the city and he complained about the state of our roads. This is an urgent issue that should be attended to,” he said.

Clr Juda also said there is a need for council to prioritise the repair of roads instead of waiting for central Government.

“We should play our role of providing services to our residents and Government should just come in to complement our efforts,” he said.

Kwekwe District Development Coordinator, Mr Fortune Mpungu implored the councillors to have a unity of purpose.

“There should be unity among you councillors, put your political jackets aside and serve the people. You made promises during campaigns and now it is time to deliver on the promises. At the end of the day, what we want is development,” he said.

Mr Mpungu said the country can only realise its 2030 vision if councils deliver on their mandate of improving service delivery.

“Residents have entrusted you with the responsibility of running council affairs on their behalf and they expect you to deliver on this mandate,” he said.