By Political Reporter
The opposition led councils have failed to provide adequate services to rate payers and there is need to usher in people-centered ZANU PF councillors to run the affairs of our cities.
This was said yesterday by President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the commissioning of the ZWL$8 million Chombwe Piped Water Scheme in Chivi.
President Mnangagwa said the MDC led councils have failed and it’s high time for Government’s intervention to save rate payers who are being short changed by the councils.
“MDC councils have failed. I think next time we must elect ZANU PF councillors to run the affairs of our towns. But as Government, we will not wait while the MDC is destroying our cities and towns.
“We sat down and discussed that we are the owners of all cities and towns, so we are in the process of seeing how best we can provide services to the people in towns because MDC has failed to do that. We will do it alone so that our people can live a comfortable life in towns,” said President Mnangagwa.
Harare and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s two largest cities are currently dominated by opposition councillors from both the MDC Alliance and MDC T. These councils have perennially been blamed for failing to provide services to the people with most suburbs going for weeks without water and uncollected garbage.
President’s Mnangagwa’s call for Government to assist in the running of towns came at a time when a lot of people are calling for Commissions to run Harare and Bulawayo as they have failed to satisfy the needs of the ratepayers.
Residents groups are also pushing for the Government to appoint Commissions which they say are long overdue as a result of deep rooted corruption that has seen allegations of councillors conniving with management to prejudice councils.
One Harare resident, Tafadzwa Munetsi, concurred with President Mnangagwa that the MDC has failed to run the councils and supported the idea of a temporary Commission to run the affairs of Harare.
“A Commission should have been in place way back. People’s lives are in danger due to corruption and lack of service delivery. In Harare people are going for weeks without water and it’s a time bomb for cholera. The Commission should be appointed as soon as possible,” said Munetsi.
This will not be the first time for the affairs of Harare to be run by a Commision.There has been Commissions in the past with one being led by Sekai Makwavarara and the latest led by Ms Bella Manyakara in 2018.
