Vusumuzi Dube
THE Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Daniel Garwe, is set for a busy day in Bulawayo today, with five significant engagements on his agenda.
His schedule starts with a meeting at Bulawayo’s main Fire Station, where he will connect with firefighters from the Southern region.
Following this, Minister Garwe plans to hold separate discussions with both the business community and the Bulawayo City Council management. The day will culminate in a joint meeting aimed at addressing the ongoing budget impasse that has left the city without a budget for 2025.
Soon after the budget meetings, the Minister will address a press conference where he will brief members of the media on the Ministry’s position regarding the city’s budget.
Minister Garwe will then head to the mayors and town clerks training on diplomatic protocol and etiquette where he will give a keynote address.
The training workshop, being held at a city hotel, started on Tuesday and ends today. It is being organised by the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade’s Zimbabwe Foreign Service Institute facilitating.
Our senior reporter Sikhumbuzo Moyo will be giving us updates of all the Minister’s engagements as they happen.
Minister Garwe commends Operation Florian’s contribution to Zimbabwe’s firefighting efforts
GOVERNMENT has hailed the relationship between Bulawayo City Council’s fire department and the United Kingdom-based rescue team Operation Florian.
Speaking during a tour of the Bulawayo main fire station, Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe, who was accompanied by his deputy Albert Mavhunga, said for the Florian team to set aside some equipment, time and skills and come to Zimbabwe to share their knowledge and skills was a very commendable gesture.
“The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works has a mandate to deal with all disasters in the country through our Civil Protection Department and fire is part of such disasters. Zimbabwe is building itself into global standards in firefighting and to have a team from the UK to come and assist us into training our firemen is something we will treasure for as long as Zimbabwe exists as a country,” said Minister Garwe.
He said with the equipment that the city has, it was befitting that it become a fire-fighting hub.
Chamber secretary Mrs Zhou earlier revealed that the station was training firefighters from 21 other local authorities in the country.
Minister Garwe was also shown four red Lions fire tenders that the city acquired from Belarus through devolution and three for Tsholotsho, Binga and Matobo Rural District Councils which are stationed at the Bulawayo Fire Station.
The three fire tenders will be delivered to the RDC after training of its fire tenders which is expected to take off this coming month.
Bulawayo budget showdown: Minister Garwe holds crunch talks with business community
Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe has now gone into a closed-door meeting with the Bulawayo business community and later the local authority management.
The meetings are over the still-to-be-approved city budget.
After hearing submissions from the two feuding parties, Minister Garwe is expected to bring them together and announce a ministerial directive on the matter.
Members of the media will be briefed on the directive soon after
Bulawayo councillors walk out of meeting with Minister Garwe
BULAWAYO City Councillors have walked out of the Large City hall building ahead of a meeting with Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe.
The Minister is at the council chambers meeting the local authority’s stakeholders over the outstanding budget impasse.
One of the councillors said protocol dictates that a Minister can’t address any other body on council issues ahead of meeting them
Bulawayo City Council budget to get Ministerial nod today
THE Minister of Local Government and Public Works Daniel Garwe has said his Ministry will approve the Bulawayo City Council budget today.
Addressing members of the media after marathon meetings with members of the Bulawayo business community represented by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (Matabeleland Chapter) and Bulawayo councillors and management, Minister Garwe said he tasked a three-member committee made of his ministry’s chief finance director, a finance expert from the CZI and the local authority’s director of finance, to immediately start working on the grey areas raised by the two parties and present a position today.
“As we speak right now, this committee has already started working on the grey areas and once they are done, which must be today by the way, we will approve the city’s budget,” said Minister Garwe who was in the company of his Deputy Albert Mavhunga, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Raj Modi as well as the Local Government and Public Works chief director Ms Khonzani Ncube.
Government cracks down on night vending, Mayors, Town Clerks ordered to enforce ban
MAYORS and Town Clerks have been ordered to ensure that there is no night vending in their local authorities with immediate effect.
The order was given by the Minister of Local Government and Public Works Daniel Garwe in his keynote address at the mayors and town clerks training on diplomatic protocol and etiquette that started at a Bulawayo hotel on Tuesday.
“Our constitution does not have provisions for any night vending and as Government, we have noted many ills that come with night vending which include drug and substance abuse, so forthwith make sure there is no night vending in your local authorities,” said Minister Garwe.
He said local authorities have no sanitary provisions for night vending, which has resulted in the vendors using undesignated areas to relieve themselves, a vehicle for disease outbreaks.
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