dyton mupawaenda
Talent Gore
Harare residents have accused City of Harare councillors of wasting ratepayers’ money and fattening their pockets at the expense of essential service delivery to the general populace grappling with shoddy, and at times non-existent, municipal services.
This comes at a time that the Commission of Inquiry for Harare heard from December last year to July this year the city blew an equivalent of ZiG230 million, roughly US$16 million on workshops.
Harare Residents Trust (HRT) director Precious Shumba said that HRT is not shocked by the huge amount of money blown into holding workshops for councillors and officials when service delivery has collapsed.
“Residents are struggling without adequate water supplies, refuse is not being collected in most suburbs, streets have huge potholes across the high-density residential areas and council clinics are poorly equipped,” he said.
“Representation by the councillors is at its weakest with most of the councillors concentrating on attending workshops and securing residential and business stands for sale to people out there.
“The priorities at Town House are misplaced, levels of accountability are very low, with a few bureaucrats and councillors timeously responding to residents’ reports and enquiries.
Speaking at a resident dialogue meeting on Wednesday, a resident Nolly Mudiwa representing Kuwadzana 1 to Kuwadzana Extension, said the council was not collecting refuse and sewer bursts had become the order of the day in Kuwadzana.
“Council is not collecting refuse in our area and they are saying they only have one dump compactor which is servicing Dzivarasekwa,” she said.
“This has resulted in the sprouting of illegal dumpsites which have become an eyesore in Kuwadzana, council is not attending to sewer bursts.
“Our children are exposed to water-borne diseases due to the council’s negligence on sewer bursts but they have money to spend on workshops, instead of prioritizing service delivery they are thinking about their own pockets.
“This just shows that they have misplaced priorities, they don’t care about the residents at all.”
Kudakwashe Hwanhi said the council must be stopped from doing out-of-town workshops as it was a very expensive exercise.
“The money could be used for service delivery and road maintenance. Look at grass cutting, sewage, provision of clean water and street lights, they are in a state of decay,” he said.
“They can do their workshops in Harare, what is new there. I guess somebody is benefiting and these people have to be stopped as there is no accountability in council.
“Why should residents of Harare fund this extravagance when there is a widespread shortage of water, erratic refuse collection and service delivery has deteriorated?
“It is high time that our council seriously considers service delivery first before these wasteful meetings which benefit individuals.”
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter