Fredrick Moyo
Following a petition by Masvingo United Residents and Ratepayers Alliance (MURRA) over the use of devolution funds, Masvingo City Council (MCC) officials were on April 4, 2022 summoned to a public hearing led by the Parliamentary Portfolio committee on Local Government, Public Works and National Housing to answer to allegations raised by the residents organisation.
MURRA wrote a petition to the Parliament of Zimbabwe around mid-year in 2021 seeking the intervention of the legislative board into the affairs at Town House in a move aimed at ensuring that the provisions of the constitution are upheld in protecting the constitution as well as democratic governance.
The petition stated that residents are disturbed by the manner in which council is using devolution funds without consulting them, shortage of water and also the money council received several years ago from National Social Security Authority (NSSA) towards the completion of Mucheke trunk sewer project that has not been completed to date.
“Troubled that several years ago, the city of Masvingo received funds in the form of a loan from National Social Security Authority (NSSA) towards the completion of Mucheke Main Trunk Sewer project, that has not been completed to date, since the onset of the project, the completion of the project has been stalled despite being included in the local authority’s budget every year,” read part of the petition letter.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee chairperson Miriam Chikukwa said they came for the public hearing because of the petition that MURRA sent to them complaining about poor service delivery and the use of devolution funds without residents’ consultation.
“We are here as a committee of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Portfolio committee because of the petition that was written by MURRA in which they stated poor service delivery from council and also the use of devolution funds without engagement of residents. We have called council and residents to have this public hearing that everyone has a chance to speak about the issues at hand,” said Chikukwa.
Responding to the petition, Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa confirmed the use of devolution funds towards the Mucheke Trunk sewer project without consulting residents.
“What we were doing in terms of consulting over usage of devolution funds is that we were doing them jointly with our council financial year budget in September or October. We would do that after receiving focuses from government that we would have such amount this year, have proposals and that is when we held consultations,” said Mukaratirwa.
Chikukwa responded to Eng Mukaratirwa saying council should hold their consultations separately as they are two different things.
“Devolution consultation and your council consultations are two different things. As council, you have your own budget with your own agenda while the devolution fund is not yours. It is money from central government that is supposed to come to the community so that it is used in line with what the community wants and needs. You did not need to consult the ministry but instead residents as they are the owners of the money,” Chikukwa said.
Prosper Tiringindi from Masvingo Residents Forum (MRF) said they no longer trust council as they keep on lying to residents and management should change their approach when engaging stakeholders.
“Council should change its attitude especially towards stakeholder approach which is the key to community development. Council is just making its decisions without consulting residents. In terms of devolution funds, council should give us detailed financial reports and see how they are using our money. We also paid money as residents meant to help towards the trunk sewer project but they are not mentioning it. Council should also be clear on its figures as they are lying to use. We now do not have the faith and trust as residents,” said Tiringindi.
The truck sewer that started over a decade ago saw the going down the drain of over US $4 million after some shadowy deals between council and Mutual Construction company private limited before ZW$ 400 000 was used in 2019 and ZW$ 9 million in 2020 and in 2022 they have budgeted to use ZW$ 86, 5 million.
