Residents lambast councillors for sabotaging development

COWDRAY Park residents have described Bulawayo councillors as selfish after they took a swipe at Zanu-PF aspiring Cowdray Park constituency Parliamentary candidate, Professor Mthuli Ncube for fixing roads and sinking boreholes.

During a full council meeting which was held last Wednesday, councillors said Prof Ncube was contravening provisions of the Roads Act by embarking on works without seeking permission and authority from the council.

This has however, not gone down well with Cowdray Park residents who saw in Prof Ncube their development messiah. They said the local authority had failed to develop the area regardless of them having the mandate to do so.

Mr Hardlife Nkomo said: "The constituency has a sitting Zanu-PF councillor Kidwell Mujuru. He is the one who helped Prof Ncube to identify some of the bad roads which are being rehabilitated. He was consulted in each and every development that is being done, so I do not know what these councillors are talking about. Besides, what is really sad is that council couldn't bring any development in the area. Our roads began getting bad about 10 years ago but they had done nothing ever since. These councillors are failing residents. They were supposed to fix these roads long back. However, we are very happy with the development that we are seeing here," said Mr Nkomo.

Another resident Miss Rumbidzai Chidoma said the councillors failed to come up with ideas and solutions that would develop Cowdray Park in their full council meetings but only want to sabotage development.

"Cowdray Park is in dire need of development. There were areas where water would not come for six months and council was doing nothing about it. People had to walk long distances because the roads were not accessible exposing them to various risks. These councillors are not from Cowdray Park hence they do not understand our plight. In the very same council meetings, they failed to come up with ideas on how they could improve and develop Cowdray Park. However, Professor Mthuli Ncube has done so much in a short space of time. As a resident, I view the development as something beyond politics," said Ms Chidoma

Mr Dumisani Sibanda said it was worrying how people who were elected to represent people and spearhead development were uttering such sentiments about development.

"I am sure 99 percent of the people in Cowdray Park are appreciating it. Roads are now navigable while water woes have been mitigated by the drilling of boreholes. We are wondering why they were bitter over the developments. In fact, why did they not implement the development as part of their mandate," said Mr Sibanda.

The councillors warned other aspiring candidates that they should not embark on road works without getting authorisation from relevant offices.