By Own Correspondent
Villagers from Mutasa Dristrict Council’s ward 18 have urged the local authority to prioritise consultative meetings in order to promote participation by ordinary members of the society.
Speaking during a community dialogue meeting organized by TellZim News, members of the public said they were worried by the fact that they had never been involved in budget consultation meetings and urged the ward Councillor Johanne Mandirangana to make sure the local authority comes to the people.
“We have seen government coming down to us for budget consultations and we make our contributions to national budget but surprisingly we have never seen our local authority doing the same here.
“We have always seen you (Councillor) here and we do meetings with you and we are happy with you thus far- however, your council has not managed to come down for budgets reviews. We are surprised with new levies and taxes that are just imposed on us without consultations,” said Village had Chauruka.
Villagers said there were a number of projects and activities that they would want to see local authority executing.
Councillor Mandiringana said he was happy to hear people’s views and promised to do his best in addressing concerns raised. He also urged the Ward Development Committee (WDCO) to be very active and be ready to do their work.
“I can’t be everywhere or the council may not be represented at every level however, your Ward Development Committee – the people I introduced to you when we started this meeting must be there always to push for our interests as a ward. Those people must be active to promote healthy dialogue between you and local authority. I will be happy as Councillor to always have this committee come for follow-ups and suggestions of the things that we must do together,” said the councilor.
…as pregnant women travel 12 km to nearest clinic
Speaking at the same event, locals told the Councillor that there was need to fast-track the completion of a clinic being constructed at Chidazembe Primary School since expecting mothers were travelling almost 12 km to the nearest health facility.
“We appeal to you to help that we finish our clinic as soon as possible since expecting mothers are travelling very long distances for services. In many instances, women are walking for 12km and we think this is not good,” said village head Chauruka.
Other villagers also raised issues of human wildlife conflict saying they were facing challenges from wild animals like warthogs that were invading their fields and destroying crops.
“We are failing to get better yields because of wild pigs. Right now the yams we planted are being eaten by the pigs. The mealies that are almost ready in gardens are being eaten and even in the fields when we plant, they will also come, so this is affecting our yields,” said one villager.
