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Lovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
GWERU residents and councillors have attacked council management for failing to utilise $80,000 allocated to the city by the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) for road rehabilitation.
They said management should explain how it failed to utilise the money at a time when the road infrastructure was in a deplorable state.
Zinara is holding on to $400,000 meant for Gweru City Council 2015 road projects but the local authority will only access the funds after providing proof of how it used the $80,000.
In separate interviews, residents’ associations took a swipe at management for failing to utilise the money while the road network continued to get worse as evidenced by the increase in potholes on the city roads.
Gweru United Residents’ Association (Gura) acting chairperson, Davison Muduva, called on council to account for the money since the roads have not been rehabilitated.
He said they had approached the local authority over the matter but no explanation was proffered.
“We’ve approached council over Zinara funds but they continue to be evasive over the issue. They are failing to account for the funds and we’re now beginning to suspect that they used them for other things other than what they were intended for,” said Muduva.
Gweru Residents and Ratepayers’ Association (GRRA) chairperson Cornilia Selipiwe said council management priorities were misplaced.
He said residents were not amused by the council management’s failure to utilise the Zinara funds.
“It’s not surprising that we’ve these things happening because management has misplaced priorities. The roads in the city aren’t usable yet we’ve a management which is always travelling and giving themselves travel and subsistence allowances,” said Selipiwe.
Speaking at a recent full council meeting, councillors took management to task over Zinara funds with some coming short of calling for the dismissal of the city’s acting head of engineering services, Engineer Praymore Mhlanga.
Councillors questioned why the roads were in a deplorable state yet the roads authority had availed funds towards their rehabilitation.
Ward 4 councillor and finance committee chairperson, Clr Albert Chirau said:
“What I want to find out from you Town Clerk (Daniel Matawu) is when was the last time you wrote a warning letter to one of your comrades because it’s now a year since we received funds from Zinara but the money is still lying idle in the bank?”
Clr Chirau said roads in the city were no longer passable, adding, “We’ve poor roads and some of them are now impassable but we’ve people who are folding their hands in their office. This is unacceptable Town Clerk and we should see heads rolling if this kind of attitude to work continues.”
Ward 5’s Clr Moses Marecha weighed in and called for performance-based contracts for senior management.
“We can’t have a situation whereby a person just goes into the office and sits while doing nothing. There is need to draw contracts where one is paid based on their performances and if you can’t perform then council shouldn’t renew your contract,” he said.
Matawu could not respond to the questions posed by councillors and was rescued from the situation by Mayor, Clr Hamutendi Kombayi, who attributed non-use of the road fund to the absence of a substantive director of engineering services.
Clr Kombayi said operations in the engineering services department had been crippled by the unavailability of a substantive director.
“The problem is that we don’t have a substantive director of engineering services.
“This has made it difficult for those in that office to plan properly.
“You’re the very people who were clamouring for Engineer (Jones) Nanthambwe to resign and now we no longer have someone substantive. This is why we’re in this situation,” said Clr Kombayi.
The local authority has been operating without a director of engineering services since 2013 following the resignation of the then director, Eng Nanthambwe.
Eng Mhlanga has been the acting director for the department since the beginning of the year.
Online Reporter