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matters which affect the core business of council, while sometimes witnessed featuring on non-critical events.”
Minister Chombo singled out the failure by the mayor to deal with an industrial action by council employees last month.
“Let me advise you that on Friday October 07 2011, I broached a mediatory process between your city’s management and representatives of workers union while you did not commit yourself to a matter of public concern.
“As a mayor, I expected you to take active interest on the industrial action because the matter was threatening, not only service delivery but the health and the lives of Harare residents.”
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He said he had expected Mayor Masunda “to apprise him on the simmering industrial action well before it escalated to explosive levels”.
Minister Chombo later set up a team chaired by officials from his ministry to facilitate negotiations between council and its workers.
He urged council to put in place practical measures “to deal with supply of safe and adequate water, sewerage disposal and rubbish collection”.
Mr Masunda confirmed receipt of the letter.
“The bottom line is that I do not want to play a blame game with anybody whether it is Chombo or anyone. I am there in the hot seat and I have to deal with issues that need to be dealt with.
“Ignatius Chombo has been at the helm of that ministry since 1999, what has he done? Things came to a halt when they were all those jokers. What did Sekesai Makwavarara or all those illegal commissions do?”
Mr Masunda said it was difficult to turn around Harare’s fortunes when the city is owed over US$200 million by the Government, residents, industry and commerce.
He said industry owed US$80 million, while the Government and its departments owed US$70 million. Individual ratepayers owe council US$40 million.
Mr Masunda said council is working to recover what it is owed.
“We embarked on a blitz last month and some corporates paid up.”
The mayor said he personally phoned defaulting companies and asked them to pay the outstanding bills.
“People must pay up so that we are able to do a number of things. We are not getting any funding from Government.
“The city is expected to generate revenue from rates, licensing of motor vehicles among other things,” he said.
Mr Masunda blamed council’s failure to deal with some issues on councillors who he said had no clue on local governance issues.
He accused Minister Chombo of “not exercising his prerogative of choosing special interest councillors judiciously”.
The mayor has since met Minister Chombo and illustrated the dire situation his council is facing. The Harare Residents Trust yesterday said residents were not satisfied with the performance of Mr Masunda.
“We are doing a comprehensive report evaluating the performance of the mayor since he took office. But we are particularly concerned with the provision of services to residents in 2011.
“We are particularly looking at issues to do with water delivery. We are looking at the quality of water provided, adequacy of water delivered to individual households and the right of residents to access that water.”
Trust co-ordinator Mr Precious Shumba said: “We are also looking at house delivery, accountability and transparency in the allocation of residential stands.
“Is the mayor accountable to residents of Harare or to the MDC? He did not perform to our satisfaction. He even failed to investigate corruption by councillors.”
Online Reporter