Press Statement from the Gwanda Residents Association

After being inundated with enquiries from various media houses in the country the Interim Gwanda Residents Association would like to make the following statement on the issue of the asbestos gravel being spread on the roads in Ward 9 purportedly by Council or the Councillor of the Ward concerned:

1) On the 7th of December 2013, residents of Gwanda met at Jahunda Community Hall to discuss the revival of the Gwanda Residents Association as constituted and registered in 1994.

2) An Interim Executive Committee was elected to steer the revival of the Association and facilitate for the election of a substantive committee on or before the end of June 2014.

3) The Interim Executive Committee was specifically mandated to attend to the following in the interim: I To follow up and regularise the registration of the Association and revive relations with all other bodies that it must work with.

ii. To come up with a new constitution which will be brought before all residents of Gwanda before adoption at the June 2014 General Meeting.

iii. To come up with a Memorandum Of Understanding and Working Document with the Municipality of Gwanda and other pertinent stake holders in the town. iv To go out and mobilise residents in all the wards of the Gwanda Municipality Area to subscribe to the Association. v To facilitate the formation of ward residents committees in all the wards.

vi. To receive and transmit to Council and any other relevant authorities concerns coming from the residents and facilitate for their immediate attention.

4) That being the case, while the Association and Council were still going over the modalities of establishing the working document and relations a cluster of residents approached the Association with a concern that asbestos gravel rumoured to be unsafe for use in human habitation is being spread on roads in ward 9 and Senondo Primary School grounds. The residents issued the Association with a 48 hour ultimatum to seek clarification if the gravel was indeed unsafe or safe. The urgency being linked to health concerns of the matter.

5) The Association had no alternative but to confer the same to Council with a 24 hour ultimatum for the authority to provide a clarification if the gravel was safe or not safe. A response was unfortunately not received from council within the time stipulated and still not received as of this moment.

6) After receiving the concern, the Association called for a ward meeting to discuss the issue with the entire ward to hear the views of the broader residence of the ward. The meeting was booked and cleared with the police as required. Council was notified of the purported meeting and a request to use the Council mobile public address system to use to invite people to the meeting was sent to council looking at the urgency of the matter.

7) Little did the Association know that the councillor of the ward concerned had also called for a meeting at the same time and at the same venue with residents something which both Council and the Police did not bring to the attention of the Association. Little also did the Association know that Council had not communicated with Councillor concerned about the Association's intended meeting with the resident of his ward.

8) As a result there was a clash of meetings and wrong dissemination of information which resulted in a clash between the Councillor and the Association. The Councillor rightfully felt belittled by not being advised of the meeting and the clashing of the meetings which subsequently sort of created a division amongst the residents and also showed an element of confusion between the two parties that are expected to work together for the good of the residents. This inevitably led to regrettable tension between the Association and the Councillor.

9) As the Interim Residents Association we therefore would like to make the following clarification: I We would like to emphasise that as Residents representation our priority is ensuring service provision to residents by all authorities concerned and the enforcement of development in the town and will never be against any such moves. In the regard, we would to clearly and without ambiguity state that as an Association we are 100% behind any developmental work that Councillor Thulani Moyo and other councillors are in their wards particularly from their own resources, we applaud them for that.

ii. We also would like to thank the residents who brought up the concern on the safety of the gravel and want to assure them that we are engaging Council to the highest possible authorities and levels to get them to dispel or confirm the rumour that the gravel being spread on the road is safe or not.

iii. On the issue of whether proper procedure was followed by Councillor Moyo in doing the road works he is doing in his ward or whether authority was sort to bring the gravel to the ward is at this stage out of our concern. All we want and are happy with for now is that a piece of good work is being done in the ward which our residents need and appreciate.

iv. The issue of the procedure or authorisation there from is Council's issue to handle. However, if there is evidence that procedure was not properly followed and the gravel is indeed proven to be poisonous we will be the first ones to take Council to task on why and how we find residents exposed to such negligence and we shall tirelessly push for heads to roll.

10) We want to further emphasise that as a Residents Association we are not obliged to seek Council nor any single Councillor's authorisation to meet with the residents but out of courtesy and need for an amicable working relationship with these authorities we shall inform them of the meetings and invite them to attend if they are willing and available.

11) Following the aborted meeting which we out of honour decided to allow the councillor to proceed with his agenda, we will be going back to the ward concerned in the next few days to consult further with the residents and advise them of the next course of action that is being taken to draw council to give out clarification on whether the gravel is safe or not safe and if not what redress will be done thereafter.