via Harare mayor hits back at Mugabe May 13, 2014 in NewsDay by Moses Matenga
HARARE mayor Bernard Manyenyeni has hit back at President Robert Mugabe accusing him of trying to score cheap political points by blaming MDC-T- led local authorities for the poor state of roads.
Addressing an MDC-T campaign rally in Norton on Sunday, Manyenyeni said most policies pursued by the Zanu PF-led government had had a negative effect on councils’ operations.
“President Mugabe said we [councils] must be jerked-up, but I want to say until we have a national solution, a council solution is a far cry. You and me still have a long way to go,” Manyenyeni said.
Manyenyeni said the national solution would allow councils to operate freely without economic challenges, adding that Zimbabwe was in an economic quagmire spilling over to local authorities.
“The national solution will determine the council solution. At the moment, the country is in a crisis and until there is that solution, there is nothing more to be done,” he said.
In his speech at the just-ended Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Bulawayo, Mugabe chided councils for poor service delivery, particularly potholed urban roads and erratic water supply.
“Councillors would say they don’t have money, but where does it go? We pay rent, we pay rates, we would now want to know. So, local government has got to be jerked up so that it can jerk up our councillors so that they can look after the people better. But we in government also must look to build better roads, dualisation… and not just resurfacing of roads,” Mugabe said.
“So we must work on infrastructure, infrastructure utilities like Zesa and water, sewage, my my my!” he said.
“We are drinking raw water, all that sewage running into water sources and the doctors have said our water is not clean, in all the cities, that’s why we have put an emergency committee in the Cabinet, we have created an emergency committee to look at water immediately, and sewage and try to clean all the cities.”
Harare City Council, together with other local authorities last year claimed they were seriously crippled by Zanu PF’s populist decision to scrap debts owed by residents at the height of election campaigns for the July 31 elections.
As a result, they said it set a wrong precedent where residents were now refusing to pay rates hoping government will one day erase the accruing debts.
COMMENTS
Way to go Mayor… you tell him, tell him to get rid of Chombo, that would be good start…
Mugabe everywhere we look. Pretending the decay and destitution is not his own legacy. How happy I will be on the day that he is no longer president.
Its these adhoc “policies” which aggravate an already dire situation. The gvt and ultimately councils have no money which is the problem. Then you hear somebody who should know better says “we formed a committee within cabinet” to look into the problems of service deliveries thereby increasing costs in terms of allowances for the committee members. Unobva washaya kuti zvinombofamba sei.
and why does he (mugabe) care considering that he does his water comes from South Africa or China! Does he ever use these portholed roads? even if he uses the does he see them a 180 to 200km/hr in a tinted Zim one after all? is the road from the airport to his place not well taken care of…..which is the only road he knows in Zimbabwe. he does not even know the Robert Mugabe Avenue (or street whatever they call it).
why does he shed crocodile tears?
The time has come for RGM to shut his mouth. The buck all stops with him. As President! Which is highly questionable anyway. All he knows is to pass the buck. What sort of leadership is that. The roads were disintegrating long before the opposition popped up