Vote for worthy councillors:Chombo

votes was over.

“Last time we gave you candidates we felt had capacity to deal with your issues but you decided to vote for candidates whose capacity no one knew,” said Cde Chombo.
“This time again we are giving you people with capacity. Vote for them and enjoy service delivery.”

He was responding to complaints over poor service delivery in water supply, roads and street lighting.
Cde Chombo said the city should stop charging residents for services it is failing to render to the ratepayers.

The city charges a fixed fee that it says is for the maintenance of the water reticulation system.
Residents of Harare North constituency were the majority at the meeting.

They expressed reservations with water supply, poor roads, lack of street lights and failure by councillors in the constituency to report back on matters that happen at Town House.

“Your councillors should fight for water and good roads. They should come back to report to you,” he said.
Councillors are supposed to report back to the people on all the resolutions they take at Town House and before they go to meetings they should consult with the people who would be affected by their decisions.

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Cde Chombo said he was having headaches administering the Urban Councils Act which governs the operations of local authorities because of the poor calibre of councillors he is working with.

“You have given me a heavy punishment. The councillors I work with do not know their mandate. They have no interest to work for the people,” he said.
Cde Chombo said when the councillors were elected they thought councillorship was a full time job.

He added that when the post of mayor was created in Europe — office bearers were rich people who were expected to use their own resources to develop the cities.
Cde Chombo said because of the poor service delivery experienced under MDC councils for the last 10 years, the electorate should be decisive and dump the party in favour of Zanu-PF.

“You should look for best councillors in Zanu-PF,” he said.
He said Harare’s budget was equivalent to that of five Government ministries and as such it was unfair to elect touts to represent the people and make decisions on their behalf.

The new Zanu-PF Government, said Cde Chombo, would distribute more land to the people. He said housing co-operatives were among the priority areas.
Meanwhile MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday admitted corruption in councils led by his party and said all those implicated in any act of misconduct and corruption would not be allowed to represent the party in the forthcoming harmonised elections.

Speaking at a press conference in Harare, Mr Tsvangirai said the party fired many of its councillors because of corruption.
“Our record speaks for itself in that we fired a whole council in Chitungwiza for corruption,” he said.

Mr Tsvangirai said the party established a commission of inquiry last year which discovered that its councillors were dabbling in corruption.
“We have taken a position that any councillor or anyone else who was named, implicated, involved or linked to any act of misconduct or corruption will not stand on the party ticket in the forthcoming election,” he said.

“We are taking a stand that anyone implicated or named in that report (of the commission) will not stand in our party’s name, even for primary elections.”
Mr Tsvangirai said councillors had soiled “the good name” of his party because of corruption.

The MDC-T-led councils have been rocked by so much corruption as the councillors enrich themselves at the expense of service delivery.
Most of the MDC-T councillors were elected while wallowing in poverty, but some of them were now building mansions in leafy suburbs.

In Harare, the councillors have neglected service delivery to such an extent that garbage goes for months without being collected, while residents have been without constant supplies of water for years.