MDC-T to blame for urban mess?

Some political analysts, residents associations and empowerment groups said yesterday no amount of dust kicking will exonerate the MDC-T from the mess it created in Harare due to the ineptness of its leadership.

The analysts said the MDC-T, which has been running most urban councils since 2000, was responsible for the flooding of illegal vendors, mushrooming of illegal structures and congestion in the cities.

In a bid to regain lost political ground, the MDC-T has vainly tried to promote anarchy, inciting vendors to resist the directive by Government that they move to designated selling points.

Political analyst Dr Lawton Hikwa said there had been no service delivery to talk of since the MDC-T took over the running of urban councils.

He said the refusal by the Western funded party to embrace special interest councillors, most of whom are technocrats seconded by Government, had worsened the situation.

"The lack of progress in the cities points to nothing but ineptitude of councillors and mayors who have been in place for all these years," said Dr Hikwa.

"They even fail to come up with strategies to make residents pay their rates, compromising service delivery in the process.

"They refuse people who have the required skills, that is special interest councillors, yet they have not shown any capacity to deliver."

Dr Hikwa said lack of knowledge on how local authorities work had also seen the MDC-T officials refusing to cooperate with Government.

Another political analyst, Mr Goodwine Mureriwa, said MDC-T seemed intent on lining pockets at the expense of service delivery.

"Instead of coming with strategies to end congestion and illegal vending, they looted resources and ended up even occupying land reserved for recreational purposes and schools," he said.

"In that case, how do we expect them to have controlled the mushrooming illegal structures? They have presided over the deterioration of service delivery in the country and they want to blame Zanu-PF for that."

Mr Mureriwa added: "They now want to have chaos, supporting lawlessness thinking this will result in an insurrection. They want to resurrect through this chaotic set up, but I see that Zanu-PF has been awake to those shenanigans."

Empowerment outfit Black Business Forum media and public relations executive Mr William Chaitezvi said the MDC-T had ruined Harare by folding hands while illegality manifested.

"They are responsible for the demise because they foresaw all these problems sometime back and they let them grow into a monster without doing anything," he said.

"The councillors are ultimately accountable and since they dominate, there is no excuse from them."

Affirmative Action Group president Mr Chamu Chiwanza said the chaos in Harare did not point to a failing economy, but the "maladroitness" of the MCD-T leadership.

"Even during the 1980s, vendors were there, but were put in proper places and now we are seeing failure to plan on the part of the council officials," he said.

"To cover up, the MDC-T has hijacked the vendor issue and want to politicise it. The MDC-T and their mayor are lost on how to handle the vendors."

Harare Residents Trust director Mr Precious Shumba said incompetent chief executives and town clerks were also to blame for the decline in service delivery.

But MDC-T spokesperson Mr Obert Gutu said his party had nothing to do with the poor service delivery.

"This can only be said by people who do not know how local authorities are run," he said.

"The people responsible for the day to day running of the council is the town clerk and his team."