'Kasukuwere failed dismally'

Civic Society Organisations as they pursue their 21 days of activism campaign have accused the Local Government Ministry led by Saviour Kasukuwere of running down the local authorities leading them to fail in their service delivery.

"We the citizens, brought together under the banner of 21 days of activism do hereby make the following statement that; the state of service delivery by local authorities in Zimbabwe is in a quagmire and much can be done to address fundamental challenges bedeviling that sector.

"The Ministry of local Government and Housing has failed dismally to provide policy direction to enable a better working environment for local councils and boards," said the CSOs.

"The responsible ministers have been famed with dismissing elected executives and setting up commissions selected on partisan basis. These commissions have presided over poor service delivery characterised by an acute shortage of essential amenities water being topical on the list. One shudders to think of the Sekesai Makwavarara headed commission that ran Harare City Council like a tuckshop. The unwarranted interference by the Ministry in the appointment of James Makore as the town clerk of Harare is a case in mind, this must stop if service delivery is to improve."

They said it is on record that Central government is targeting revenue collected by local authorities especially in Harare, the revenue is being utilized to pay civil servants salaries and the government's recurrent expenditure whilst council employees have gone for almost a year without salaries.

"The city authorities themselves cannot be spared the rod as they are to blame for failure to provide clean and safe water for drinking despite residents paying bills. We call upon the city of Harare and all councils and board to ensure that ratepayers come first before awarding themselves hefty salaries.

"The issue of potholes must be addressed as a matter of urgency, refuse must be collected timeously to curb the outbreak of primitive diseases such as cholera and typhoid, burst sewer pipes must be attended to immediately and this will work when all council employees are remunerated on time. We call upon all relevant stakeholders to be aware that people's lives matter and failure is no longer an option," said the CSOs..

"All this and other acts of unparalleled mismanagement have led to a serious decline in service delivery. It is disheartening to note how public officials in charge of public service delivery like refuse collection, water treatment, roads management, public health are abusing public service delivery institutions to fill their pockets and have turned all taxation systems into fundraising schemes for their hefty and out of this world salaries."

The CSOs said the continued antagonism between the ministry of local government and local government authorities has fulfilled the adage that goes as, 'when the elephants fight, the grass suffers and when they are making love its suffering continues unabated'.

"This aptly describes how petty politicking by the Zanu Pf led ministry of local government headed by minister Savior Kasukuwere in a bid to hijack the operations of city Councils for political expediency and power retention gimmicks have led to demolitions of thousands of houses, generation and spread of typhoid and cholera," said tyhe CSOs.

"This and other symptoms of utmost failure to deliver quality service like potholes, have led to us the ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe to partake in the #21daysofactivism as a reminder to the president of Zimbabwe that all is not well with us the people. It is within this background that we are making the following demands before His excellency, the president of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe enjoys his 93rd $2million birthday bash set to be held in Matopos on 21 February 2017: Quality and safe water for the people as enshrined in section 77 of Zimbabwe's constitution, Resurfacing of roads, and Refuse collection and dumping sites faraway from residential areas."