dyton mupawaenda
Michael Magoronga-Midlands Bureau
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 the 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 Dr Solomon Matsa (Ward 10) who were all elected on the Zanu PF ticket in the recent by-election triggered by the recall of three CCC councillors who included former mayor Dr Henry Madzorera, former deputy mayor Melody Chingarande and Simon Machisvo, who was the chief whip for the opposition-dominated council.
Kwekwe now 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 status by 2030, by advocating for service delivery.
“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 service delivery from road repairs, sewer reticulation, and refuse collection among other mandates,” said Dr Matsa.
“If we achieve this, our people can have normal livelihoods and that can propel the Government’s mandate. We should come up with ways that make lives easy for the ratepayers, and not overburden them with ballooned water bills.”
Dr Matsa said they are looking forward to improving service delivery in the city.
“Our pensioners should also be able to afford lives and be able to pay their rates while some senior citizens may even have their bills scrapped because they already worked for the development of the city in various ways,” he said. Cllr Muganhu said his first point of call was to ensure that roads were rehabilitated.
“Just recently Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Owen Ncube was in the city and he expressed displeasure with the state of our roads. This is an urgent issue that should be attended to,” he said.
“President Mnangagwa is on record saying that roads should be repaired and meet international standards to lure investors. As a council, we should be able to repair the roads and not scare away potential investors.”
Cllr Juda said: “We should be able to make sure that our roads are trafficable. As a council, we should not wait for the central Government to do everything for us. We should play our role and fulfil the Government’s mandate.”
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 has a vision to fulfil and it needs service delivery.
“The President cannot be here to repair roads hence he has entrusted councillors to spearhead service delivery and fulfil his mandate. Let us continue working together for the betterment of our city and the country,” he said.
Online Reporter