Residents want city directors taken to account

Harare Residents Trust has said City of Harare Directors must be taken to task for their lack of attention to their service delivery mandate.

The trust listed the names of the directors to be probed as Engineer Philip-PFukwa at Works Department, Tendai Kwenda, Acting Director Finance,.Josephine Ncube, Chamber Secretary, and Acting Town Clerk,. Cainos Chingombe, Human Capital Director and Engineer Hosiah Chisango, Acting Director Harare Water.

"Interviews we have had with different employees of the council have revealed that the contracts signed by the senior managers were signed and approved by Councillors, even before former Town Clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi was forced out of council," said the trust.

"So the question of the huge allowances and salaries that have been received by the senior managers were not a secret to the Councillors. They only kept quiet because the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing had not undertaken this audit. If it were in their power, the audit findings would have been kept in confidence. They were attending workshops and other programmes where they were being paid handsomely for their involvement in processing council deals. Firstly, City Parking, and the rest of Harare Sunshine Holdings have to be fully unveiled for the public so that nothing secretive continues to happen."

The trust said the issue that concerns the HRT is beyond the question of salaries and allowances but about good governance, transparency and accountability.

"The citizens are failing to trust the Council over deteriorating service delivery. For effective and efficient service delivery, there has to be reliability, affordability of public services and TRUST. Once people have trust in the Council, they will try their best to pay what they have. But currently trust is at its lowest ebb," said the trust.