Demos erupt following council audit

Mutare has been filled with civil protest as demonstrations erupted in the town centre against findings of a recent Government audit which exposed rampant corruption and breakdown of service delivery at the municipality.

While some of the protesters — bussed to the venue by Dangamvura/Chikanga legislator,  Isau Mupfumi — sang songs calling for the dismissal of the entire council management, the other camp countered, saying the demonstrators were being used to advance selfish political interests.

The protesters traded insults before anti-riot police officers moved in to maintain order.

Mupfumi, who later addressed the protesters, had a torrid moment to get audience as those opposed to the demonstration interjected his address. In his address,  Mupfumi said corruption was rampant at the local authority as exposed by the audit report. He said managers were sending their children to expensive schools abroad at the detriment of service delivery.

"We are saying no to all this. These are the last days of managers at council. We are not going to chuck them out without following procedure, but I assure you they are on their way out," he said.

The legislator said service delivery had broken down, while workers had gone for 18 months without salaries, a situation he said was unacceptable.

 Mupfumi said the Gimboki South issue was a bone of contention which the local authority was failing to handle, yet the ministry gave them the green light to bring the housing project to order.

Midway into his address some of the protesters interjected saying the legislator was commenting on council corruption with dirty hands since he owed the local authority thousands of dollars in unpaid rates.

"Lead by example, pay the money that you owe council first," shouted one of the protesters.

 Mupfumi rubbished the claims saying the protesters had been paid by management to disrupt the demonstrations.

Town Clerk, Obert Muzawazi, said ratepayers had a right to demonstrate, but council was seized with implementing recommendations of the audit report.

He said the main objective of the local authority was to revamp council revenue which drastically dwindled since July 2013 when rates arrears were scrapped.

"Then (in 2013) we wrote off $24 million which was a lot of money. Some of our ratepayers who were paying religiously started developing cold feet saying they were not rewarded for being up-to-date. Now they have joined the bandwagon and they are no longer paying up and this has left council in a dire position. Managers' salaries and allowances have been slashed by 50 percent, but this has little impact on our wage bill since payments to management only consume five percent of the total amount paid to workers.

"We have a bloated workforce of 1 500 workers compared to other local authorities of the same size with Mutare.Gweru has 800 workers, Masvingo 500 and Kwekwe has about 700.Our problem is that our operations are labour intensive as we do not have capital equipment to carry out service delivery," he said.

Outlining some of the highlights of the report last week, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere, said council directors were enjoying extravagant lifestyles, which included sending their children to foreign universities and expensive schools.