By Courage Dutiro
Residents through the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET), are set to petition Masvingo City Council over the way consultation meetings were conducted, which they said excluded some residents.
VISET director Samuel Wadzai said residents felt that the City Council’s budget consultations were inadequate and missed key issues.
The organization recently convened a meeting to help residents outline their priorities which they failed to submit to council during the consultations.
“Residents believe that many important issues were overlooked by the City Council. They have noted that they want council to give priority to Health and Education issues in the city.
“The ultimate outcome of the meeting was a 10-point plan, which we will share with the council in form of a petition before the release of the draft budget. This petition will be signed by residents before being submitted to the council,” said Wadzai.
During the engagement meeting conducted by VISET collaborating with Masvingo United Residents and Ratepayers Association (MURRA), residents raised concern over the way budget consultation meetings were held and called council to prioritize health and education issues in its 2025 budget.
A resident, Itai Banda, said during the just ended consultations meetings some councilors were politicizing the consultation process leaving the process with some gaps.
“During consultations, I noticed some councilors selecting their supporters, providing them with specific talking points for the budget consultations, as if they were representing all residents. I also observed that those who attended the meetings wearing t-shirts of the same color were preferentially selected to provide input, while others were denied the opportunity,” said Banda.
Sungano Zvarebwanashe, a Ward 4 resident said, Masvingo City Council should give more priority to maternity facilities and resources at its clinics.
“In its budget, the council should allocate funds for the provision of a doctor at council clinics. This could be either a visiting or resident doctor. Additionally, every council clinic should have a maternity wing and a sufficient number of midwives,” said Zvarebwanashe.
Leah Matavire, a ward 5 resident said in the budget, Council should set aside enough money to construct new council schools so as to decongest the overpopulated council schools and to tame the issue of mushrooming of unregistered schools in the communities.
“I have noticed an increase of unregistered schools in the commonage which may lead to poor educational results and abuse of children, some of the council schools are over populated and some now have three hot seating learning sessions at primary level,” said Matavire.
Rejoice Maridza, a participant at the meeting also raised the need for the council to allocate funds to upgrade local council libraries to suit modern standard, which could help reduce drug abuse and promote quality education.
