Elected Citizens Coalition for Change councillor Jacob Mafume has blamed recalls, arrests and interference by the central government as hindrances that led to local authority’s failure to adequately provide service delivery. Mafume who was speaking on the sidelines after being sworn in said the CCC-led council will seek to reform some policies that give the central government power.
Of the 59 sworn-in councillors, 51 are from CCC and 8 from Zanu PF. The former Harare mayor said council will intensify efforts to give the city residents value services for their money.
“What we are going to do is that we are going to intensify issues around service delivery, issues around water, issues around making sure that the residents get the value for their money.
“We hope that there will be fewer disruptions, the last term was disrupted by recalls arrests and many other shenanigans that did not allow us to do service delivery,” said Mafume.
“This time we have been given a fresh and overwhelming mandate by the citizens of Harare and we will make sure that we implement measures that allow us to do service delivery.”
Mafume bemoaned the current economic state, saying the council receives RTGS while its suppliers demand US$.
“Of course we don’t manage the economy some of the issues have to do with currency we get our money in RTGS not in USD.
“Our suppliers demand that we pay in USD we also don’t get money for the roads it goes to Zinara. We also don’t et money for electricity it goes to Zesa.
“So some of these things we will need to look at reforming them so that we can do the roads and litter collection and provide efficient service deliver,” the former mayor said.
Harare vending stalls have been a bone of contention between the ruling party and the opposition, and according to Mafume, the elected councillors aim to work towards regularizing selling spaces.
“We are going to make sure we formalize flea markets, create safe vending sites, register them and also create standards so that we are not cooking in the streets, we are not littering everywhere.
“We are going to be doing environmental campaigns so that people understand that yes you can be a vendor but the place where you are operating does not have to be dirty, does not have to be irregular it has to be regularized.
“We have come up with an SMEs policy which we’re going to be implementing in the short to medium term,” Mafume said.
“We are going to deal with the sports economy, as you can see have done Rufaro stadium, we are going to deal with other stadia in the city.
“We are also going deal with revitalizing recreation areas in the suburbs, we are also going to make sure that we have regularized and we have made people comply with minimum standards that they need to comply with.”
Further, Mafume said there is a need to correct the billing system so that we can rate payers are quoted adequately and correctly.
Source NewZimbabwe
