Residents petition minister as Karoi Council management circus continues

Conrad Mupesa

Mashonaland West Bureau

Karoi residents and the business community have petitioned the Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Marian Chombo to look into the state of affairs at Karoi Town Council amid concerns over poor service delivery and the council’s failure to fill vacancies in critical positions.
The council has not hired substantive personnel to fill critical management positions that fell vaccant since 2017.

The town has had at least five acting town secretaries since 2017.

In the petition seen by The Herald, various orgainsations, including the Zimbabwe National Organisation of Associations and Residents Trust (ZNOART), Karoi Zero Waste and the business community said Karoi Council’s service delivery leaves a lot to be desired, while corruption is stifling operations.

Karoi town secretary, Tongai Namisala was recently arraigned before the courts over allegations of corruption.

Namisala has since been suspended and was replaced by the town’s engineer, who is juggling the two roles.

Residents believe Minister Chombo should address the issues.

“We do hereby urge you as the custodian of local authorities to listen to our pleas on the issue of service delivery and devolution,” reads the petition.

“The principles of devolution as outlined in the Devolution and Decentralisation Policy of 2020 and Zimbabwe’s Constitution Section 264 gives power of local governance to the people and enhance their participation in the exercise of the powers of the State and in making decisions affecting them.

“There have been suspensions of management and councillors, with the recent suspension of the acting town secretary being his second suspension, resulting in gross incompetence in the whole entity.

“The unprocedural dismissal of staff is costing council with legal representation fees as council loses labour cases at the cost of residents and ratepayers.”

The petition also alleges that there is minimum acquittals of devolution funds.

“Funds are being disbursed without input from the Devolution Stakeholders Committee of Karoi, which last sat in 2023.”

An official from Minister Chombo’s office confirmed receiving the petition.