In a bid to win votes in the upcoming elections, the ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition Citizens for Coalition Change (CCC) have both promised to fight corruption in the Victoria Falls City Council. Victoria Falls City Council has been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons with residents alleging that councillors and management were involved in shoddy deals involving sell of land under unclear circumstances.
This even saw the city having a record eight independent candidates as residents declared they are no longer interested in party politics and would rather vote for independent candidates. CCC leader Nelson Chamisa who was in the city for his party’s rally last week said if elected to power, his government will not tolerate corruption among office bearers.
He said citizens should have the right to recall underperforming and corrupt leaders.
“We want to put stiffer penalties. In our government, if you steal from the government you go to jail. We cannot be doing the catch and release being done by Zanu-PF because we are losing US$3 billion to corruption every year,” said Chamisa.
He said his government will build a US$100 billion-dollar economy with top-notch services and government subsidizing most services for its citizens. The council has 11 wards and nine are from the opposition CCC and MDC-T while only two are from Zanu-PF.
For the past months, the council has been at loggerheads with residents over the alleged corruption and poor governance which stakeholders have said contributes to poor service delivery facing residents. Vice President Costantino Chiwenga was also in Victoria Falls at the same Chinotimba stadium to address a Zanu-PF rally where he also castigated corruption in the city and blamed the vice on opposition politics.
“In this city, there is too much rot. This council, even after we put measures to fight corruption through the anti-corruption, you know you are living with thieves here,” said Chiwenga.
“Since they got into council since they were MDC and now CCC, what have they done besides corruption? They stole US$4 million and shared it among themselves and others bought five cars each, where is this money coming from? So don’t vote such people back.”
Chiwenga urged the residents not to vote for thieves that retard the growth of the city. He blamed the opposition for economic challenges such as price increases and run-away exchange rates.
Source CITE
