LOCAL AUTHORITIES WARNED

Paidamoyo Bore

LOCAL authorities have been warned against misusing funds at the expense of ratepayers.

Speaking at an interface meeting with councillors from Harare Metropolitan, Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Oliver Chidawu, challenged councillors to shun the culture of politicising funds and ensuring the provision of service delivery.

“The President has called us all to shun corruption to enhance the country’s investment status,” Minister Chidawu said.

He said his office had realised poor service delivery had been on the rise, in different suburbs, within the province.

He urged local authorities to work closely, and efficiently, to bring back the status of the province.

Minister Chidawu also called upon local authorities to resolve challenges in the system and capacitate their revenue collection departments to enhance service delivery.

“Development control departments must be well-resourced with appropriate staff and vehicle support, among other crucial resources, for the function. “I call upon the leadership of our municipalities to shun the culture of politicking resources at the expense of service delivery.

“We must not use municipal administration as an arena to score political goals at the expense of rate payers,” Minister Chidawu said.

Permanent Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Tafadzwa Muguti, also hailed councillors for coming together to deliberate on issues hindering development.

“This is an amazing day for us as Harare Province to manage our first Minister of State indabas with councillors as you know Harare Province has a toxic political environment.

“We managed to tackle most of the issues together as a province and what it means is that now we can move ahead with the provincial economic plan,” said Muguti.

He said in the coming weeks the Minister, mayors and himself will be holding meetings in Harare, Chitungwiza, Epworth and Ruwa.

He said as of January 2022, 52 720 households have been affected due to irregular settlements.

However, Minister Chidawu promised that his office will work tirelessly in fixing issues within local authorities.