Councillors must declare assets

Newly-formed watchdog group on local government, City Watch said they are going to push for all councillors to declare assets in order to cub corruption in councils.

In a statement, City Watch national coordinator Lawrence Tembedza said they will push to end corruption in councils.

"In our efforts, our number one enemy is corruption. In this regard, we will push councillors to declare their assets as soon as possible so that we guard against the theft of public funds.

"We will also encourage the city fathers to maintain a grip on the council employees to reduce cases of corruption. That said, for quite some time now, we have had reports of maladministration at many local authorities resulting in the loss of millions of dollars meant for service delivery.

"The funds are being diverted to non-essential issues and in worst circumstances, council officials stealing the resources."

He said this has negatively affected the smooth flow of operations while central government has also been accused of constantly poking its nose on council business, making unnecessary interferences that are anti-progressive.

Tembedza said the Zimbabwean economy is in bad shape and many residents have gone into vending.

While the rise of vending has its own challenges, he urged the local authorities to engage and listen to other ideas on how to deal with the situation.

He added that it is important to take everyone on board so that residents are clear that councils have to abide by their by-laws.

"It must be clear to everyone that removing vendors is not politically-motivated but it's a way of bringing sanity."