Bulawayo vows to confront Biti over statement

BULAWAYO Mayor Councillor Thaba Moyo has vowed to confront Minister of Finance Tendai Biti over his statements that the council failed to use about $6 million that it was allocated for the rehabilitation of  water infrastructure.

Minister Biti, in his Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review last month, alleged that the Bulawayo City Council had failed to use the money until it was returned to Treasury.

The statement came at a time when the city is facing an acute shortage of water that has resulted in council adopting water shedding and tightening water rationing.

The city is also losing millions of litres of purified water due to leaks in its dilapidated water reticulation system.

In a scathing attack on Minister Biti, who is his boss in MDC-T, Clr Moyo said the "untrue" statement gave the impression that councillors were failing to do their job.

Speaking during a full council meeting in the council chambers yesterday, Clr Moyo said he was going to take a financial statement that proved that council had indeed used the money, to Harare and confront Minister Biti.

"We sent a report about how the money was used to Biti's office way before the budget announcement. The statement showed that only $446 812,37 had not been used but it was already committed to a project. We are even seeking to apply for more funds because the money was not enough to cover all projects. When I travel to Harare, I will take the report on usage of the money with me and confront him," said Clr Moyo.

He said council was not going to stand by while the image of the city was being tarnished through baseless accusations.

The Mayor, who was breathing fire by then, turned his verbal missiles on "individuals" he accused of retarding progress in the city by opposing council programmes, especially the recently adopted water shedding regime.

Without mentioning names, he said the council detractors had the audacity to defy elected councillors who had the city's interests at heart, when they were failing to even chair burial meetings.

"I remember some years ago when a previous council that I was a member of, resolved to adopt water shedding, the same group of people applied to the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, to fire us. They wanted to be commissioners of the city," fumed Clr Moyo.

He said it defied logic that someone would be against water shedding when they were aware successive droughts had depleted the city's supply dams.

"Kanti yena lowo muntu izulu lana endlini yakhe yedwa yini? If that is the case, he should then assist the city by making rain fall at the supply dams as well," he said.

The Mayor continued with his tirade, repeating what is fast becoming his catch phrase, saying the detractor(s) could go to hell.

"Council is run by elected people. Someone in Ward 25 who cannot even chair a burial meeting wants to make unjustified noises, they can go to hell," he said amid applause from other councillors.

He said the present council was doing a superb job of keeping the city from being attacked by diseases as evidenced by praises from President Mugabe, the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Dr Ignatius Chombo, and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

During a meeting with Mbundane residents on Tuesday, Clr Moyo reportedly said those who were against the inevitable water shedding programme, were free to leave the city.

Last week, the Mayor was involved in a war of words with the chairperson of the Bulawayo United Residents' Association, Mr Winos Dube.

Mr Dube had questioned councillors' credentials for leading the city, saying their failure to plan on water issues had led to the crisis that necessitated water shedding.

The Mayor responded by telling Mr Dube to go to hell many times over.

He said Mr Dube had no right to attack councillors because he had never contributed anything towards the development of the city in his life.