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Midlands Correspondent
Zibagwe Rural District Council has started conducting pre-budget consultations, with the rural authority set to meet villagers and companies alike for their input in the 2019 budget.
Zibagwe RDC chief executive officer Mr Farayi Machaya said in a quest to reach out to almost everyone in the district, councillors will conduct ward meetings on behalf of council.
“We advised our councillors to do ward meetings whereupon they will consult their villagers on what they want included in the 2019 budget projections,” he said.
“This is all in a quest to cover the whole district rather than visiting major business centres where we would get the voices of a few people.”
Meetings with companies in the district have also been lined up whereupon they will proffer their input.
“We have put companies on top, in the district we house companies like Jena Mines, Sable Chemicals, Africa Chrome Fields (ACF) and others,” said Mr Machaya. “We will also visit them and make consultations from them and hear their input.”
In line with President Mnangagwa’s call and vision of making Zimbabwe an upper-middle economy by 2030 where upon councils play a key role, Zibagwe RDC also aims at improving quality of life for ratepayers and attract investors.
“The main thrust of our budget, among others, is water and sanitisation, infrastructure development, poverty reduction and maintaining a high standards of hygiene that attracts investors in line with President Mnangagwa’s vision 2030,” said Mr Machaya.
“We aim at improving quality of life of our people through local economic development projects, easy of doing business and unlocking investment. We cannot however go it alone without the input of the concerned people so we need their advice before implementing what we have planned.”
To complement the budget however, Zibagwe has set aside a water reticulation fund that will be channelled towards the purchase of borehole drilling rig.
“We came up with a fund that is aimed at purchasing a rig for council that we intend to use for drilling boreholes in schools, chiefs’ homestead and villages,” said Mr Machaya.
“Villagers, councillors, chiefs and village heads will each contribute varying figures for the purchase of the rig valued between $250 000 and $500 000.”
Online Reporter