Residents Blast Council Officials For Poor Service Delivery

By Faith Chimutsa

Mbare residents are up in arms with Harare City Council for failure to  attend sewer bursts and collection of refuse, posing a threat to their heath and a time bomb in most high density areas in Harare.

At a meeting organized by Amandla Center of Zimbabwe, last Saturday, residents were shocked with council officials behavior, claiming not to be the source of the problem faced by residents across the country.

Simon Moyo (32) a resident added that bursting of sewer pipes , shortage of clean water and bins will leadsl to outbreak of diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

“Some problems are now long over due, and we are quite aware that there is conflict between council and central government.

There are certain things that local authorities can do such as street lighting, fixing of roads to mention just a few because they are getting the money from residents and ZINARA,” added Moyo.

The Mbare residents are worried with the continuous deterioration of standards and dilapidation of infrastructure in their area and Harare as a whole.

“The major causes of poor service delivery is interference and political manipulation, corruption and lack of accountability and transparency, inadequate citizen participation, poor human resource policy, failure to manage change, lack of employee capacity, poor planning, and poor service delivery”, Moyo explained.

Speaking at the same occasion, ward 12 councilor , Tafadzwa Mangwiro said waterborne diseases are brewing in Harare due to the failure by the municipality to collect refuse and to attend sewer bursts.

Mangwiro promised to solve all these problems by engaging with council for the better service delivery in the location.

“City of Harare has to act immediately before the outbreak of diseases like cholera , diarrhea and typhoid,” Mangwiro added.

Harare Mayor, Jacob Mafume told this publication that council is working towards acquiring of 46 or more refuse trucks for collection of waster around Harare.

“Yes it’s true there is a refuse truck that is yet to be delivered which we purchased in 2016, the matter is before the courts.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was supposed to pay that money to the supplier and to date nothing has materialised,” said Mafume.

He said he had lost touch with progress in the urban council due to recalls and suspension by local government minister July Moyo, and promised to move with speed to attend to various priblem that Harare residents are facing daily.

“Citizens know the truth, local authorities are run by central government, July Moyo is calling the shots, Local Authorities should operate independently, that’s why they have councillors, they are able to run their development program without the assistance or interference of government.

Harare is a metropolitan city, the whole government reduces itself coming down to control and interfere with council business, its very clear, it politically motivated, only to make citizens suffer, “added Mafume.