COMMENT: Council must get its priorities right Bulawayo Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube

BULAWAYO City Council is threatening to attach residents’ homes over unpaid bills at a time when it is seeking approval to build a mayoral mansion.

Justifying the need to attach the properties of defaulters, town clerk Mr Christopher Dube said water disconnection was not an effective debt recovery strategy.

He said residents’ failure to pay up was affecting service delivery.

What the town clerk did not explain is how a mayoral mansion can improve service delivery.

In essence, the city is threatening to attach people’s homes so as to raise money to build a mansion for the mayor and his family.

The local authority is owed about $1,1 billion by residents, businesses and Government departments in the city.

Lack of a clear collection strategy and debt recovery plan has led to a crisis of epic proportions.

Money that is owed to council can go a long way in making Bulawayo great again.

However, there is little talk of attending to burst sewers on time, dilapidated road networks, failure to consistently provide water and collection of refuse.

Mr Dube told a media briefing on Tuesday that council will be forced to take radical measures to force ratepayers to clear their debts.

“We are not going to be using one strategy (water disconnections), we are going to use so many of these strategies. First, we will disconnect you, if it doesn’t work, we will take you to court and, in the end, you will end up losing your property,” said Mr Dube.

During the same meeting, he also said of Mayor Councillor Solomon Mguni’s planned relocation to a council house: “Our aim as council is not to renovate that house and make it a mansion as you people would want to call it. Our main aim is to remove the mayor from where he is staying right now and provide security. Because ultimately that (Burnside house) is not the mayor’s residence. The mayor’s residence is designated somewhere in Selbourne Park. That is where we will talk of dollars and figures.

“We have written to the ministry to say this is what we are planning as council, to use this house temporarily to house the mayor. Can you guide us to what type of furniture we can put there and what other decorations can we put there? But if the ministry for any reason or another does not respond, that project will be put in jeopardy.”

Decorations and furniture for the mayor in a temporary shelter; that is the vision for the city. The “dollars and figures” for a mayoral mansion in Selbourne Park; that is the endgame.

How about the dollars and figures needed to supply clean water to the city? The dollars and figures needed to fight diarrhoea.

Just this week, Bulawayo recorded a third diarrhoea outbreak in 11 months with about 50 cases being reported in the high-density suburb of Emganwini.

Last year, a diarrhoea outbreak in Luveve and nearby areas killed 13, infecting nearly 2 000 people.

Another outbreak saw over 100 cases, mainly affecting children, being reported in Mzilikazi and surrounding areas.

Can we deal with this and other pressing problems before we fundraise for a mayoral mansion, before we ask the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works for guidance on furniture and decorations?

In any case, the ministry has better things to do such as providing housing to millions of Zimbabweans on Local Government waiting lists.

It is not the Ministry of Interior Decor and Design!

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