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Victoria Falls applies for city status

by Staff reporter
12 Aug 2017 at 06:16hrs | Views
THE Victoria Falls Municipality has applied to Government for city status.

The local authority was conferred municipal status in 1999.

Upon joining Victoria Falls early this year, Town Clerk Mr Ronnie Dube told The Chronicle that his vision was among others, to reduce the municipality's spending and transform the resort town into a world class city.

"Part of our priority projects is to help the town attain city status this year," he said in a recent interview.

Yesterday Mr Dube told The Chronicle that the municipality had applied to Government and was waiting for the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing to send a commission.

"We have applied and we are yet to get a response. The Ministry has to send a commission to assess if we meet requirements upon which a recommendation will be made," said Mr Dube.

He said the municipality fares better than a number of local authorities in the country.

Mr Dube said the resort town boasts of an efficient and reliable water supply as well as provision of serviced land for housing projects.

"We believe we are one of the local authorities that have complied with Government requirements for city status. This is evidenced in that we have just been voted second runner up on water supply and sewer management at the just ended Local Government Investment Conference (LOGIC 2017) hosted by the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) in Harare," said Mr Dube.

Hwange Local Board was the winner in the category as the two local authorities are implementing Water and Sanitation projects funded by the Industrial Development Bank of Zimbabwe.

Mr Dube said an advert flighted by the local authority on Thursday was in conformity with the application as they call on President Mugabe to exercise his powers in terms of Section 14 of the Urban Councils Act to establish Victoria Falls City.

Last month Victoria Falls commissioned 1 300 serviced high and medium housing stands in a partnership with CBZ and last week launched a $4 million low density project which will see a private developer, Integrated Construction Project, servicing 205 low density and commercial stands in the BB7 project.

As part of its master plan, the municipality will rehabilitate roads, install solar street lighting as well as come up with cost cutting strategies.

The town's mayor, Councillor Sifiso Mpofu, last week invited industrialists to partner the local authority in developing multi-million dollar projects saying the town is embarking on a robust development drive which will help attain desired world class status.



Source - chronicle