Story by Kenias Chivuzhe
MUTARE residents are not expecting any excuses from council for poor service delivery following the approval of a ZWL45 billion budget for the local authority by government.
Poor service delivery has been the major challenge facing urban councils, with residents accusing local authorities of failure to provide services that match the collected revenue.
The approval of the budget for the city council has therefore seen residents expecting nothing short of world class service delivery.
United Mutare Residents and Rate Payers Trust deputy director, Mr Edson Dube added his organisation’s voice on the need for the local authority to prioritise service delivery.
“We hope the 2023 budget will address the immediate challenges residents of Mutare are grappling with. The budget is equivalent to US$63 million at the official inter-bank rate. Given the size of Mutare, the amount of work that is expected to be done and the amount of revenue that is expected to be to be collected, this budget is realistic unlike other years. There were complaints on the state of the roads, the state of our streets lights in the city as well as persistent sewer and water burst,” he said.
Mutare City Council has prioritised water provision and road rehabilitation projects in the 2023 budget.
“We are going to upgrade our water and sewer network so that we attend to the ageing infrastructurel which is giving in to burst and blockages on numerous occasions. We are also going to enhance the recapitalisation programme and our main focus is on the procurement of plant equipment especially for roads rehabilitation and for refuse collection.
“It is our expectation that we are going to continue with the local authority digital system to transform service delivery in Mutare,” said Mutare City Council public relations officer, Mr Spren Mutiwi.
Erratic water supplies, sewer leakages, poor road network and embezzlement of funds are some of the major sources of worry for residents.
