Dr. Henry Madzorera, former health and child care minister was sworn in as Ward 10 councillor on a CCC ticket in Kwekwe. Dr Madzorera was the Minister of Health and Child Welfare in the inclusive government and also served as senator for Kwekwe.
Speaking in an interview, said it was imperative for local authorities to be granted more powers in managing their affairs. Dr said: This time around my party asked me to be in local government and that is a lot of trust that they invested in me.
As you know, local authorities are the service providers and we need people at local authority level who can give real tangible service to the citizens. There is too much interference from the central government, which I think has got some corrupt interference in it.
Let the cities collect taxes and manage the roads like how it was done in the ’70s and ’80s. Our cities should look at the profitability of certain businesses that they used to run like the abattoir and the brewery and other businesses in that category.
Those businesses used to generate a lot of income, but they have privatised. People still drink beer, so it should be profitable. Kwekwe city residents have been grappling with paying the exorbitant rates, with some high-density suburbs experiencing intermittent water outages despite the extremely high rates.
Madzorera blamed the central government for local authorities’ failure to deliver services, such as running water and functioning sewerage reticulation system, to ratepayers. He said: The problem of rates and water is because of a government that is failing to stabilise the economy when inflation hits our pockets. The top thing is to change the government at the top.
Unfortunately, ZANU PF has decided to steal the election in the way that it has. I believe in zero-based budgeting, not this method of putting a percentage on what it was last year; we will never catch up with inflation. We must be efficient in our use of money, not just loading the citizens so that the little we have can go far.
Madzorera, who was endorsed as the potential mayoral candidate for Kwekwe by CCC leader Nelson Chamisa at a rally just before the 23 August elections, pledged to eradicate primitive diseases in the city through the provision of high-quality water and sanitation services.
Source Pindula News
