Mayor calls for unity

Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
Beitbridge Mayor Councillor Morgan Ncube has called for an increased stakeholders consultation and participation in the town’s affairs to speed up its socio-economic and infrastructure development.

He said it was important for the city fathers and ratepayers to cultivate a culture of dialogue and working together to create an environment for investment promotion and quality service delivery.

Clr Ncube made the remarks while addressing residents and businessmen among other stakeholders at a 2018 budget review meeting held in the border town last week.

He said prior to the budget review meeting, they (municipality) had started consulting different players to get their inputs for the 2019 budget.

“As a local authority which values public participation and transparency, we saw it fit to invite all of you to come so that we share how we performed over the last six months,” said Clr Ncube. “The work done by your municipality in the last six months was out of your contributions to its budget through payment of rates and services.

“Our current annual budget stands at $6.1 million and we have lined up a number of developmental projects which are at various levels of implementation. These came from the rate payers, businesses and other stakeholders through our social dialogue.

“It is our wish that we increase cooperation in all our programmes as we seek to transform the town with a shared vision. We hope you have always found these annual half year budget reviews useful.

“It is very critical that we continue giving you feedback and run the affairs of this town as transparent as possible. You will note that in the last two weeks we have been engaging the community on budget consultations for 2019.

“So far we have covered all the six wards and our officers are now putting together the views of the stakeholders which together with your views today will shape our Council for this coming year.”

Clr Ncube urged ratepayers and other players who owed the local authority to honour their bills so that they can fully implement economic and infrastructure planned programmes.

He said it was important for the local authority and its clients to have a reciprocal type of relationship to promote team work and the town’s economic growth.

Clr Ncube said since the town was this year upgraded to municipal status, there were a lot of outstanding projects which needed integrated efforts to achieve its total transformation.

“As we contribute to the 2019 budget consultations, let’s always remember that our contribution to council budget is not limited to when we suggest projects to be done in the next budget year, but we should as well pay for the services/rates/levies so that the objectives of your municipality are achieved,” he said.

“If you pay your rates/levies and all other payments due to council and we will be able to provide the services to the community and change lives for the better.”