Zimpapers Logo

Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

VICTORIA Falls City Council was recently named as the best run urban local authority at the Matabeleland North Responsible Business and Corporate Social Responsibility awards.

The awards were organised and held by CSR Network Zimbabwe in the resort city.

Victoria Falls was conferred with city status in December 2019 to become the second city in Matabeleland region after Bulawayo and the only city in Matabeleland North province.

The province has seven districts and Hwange which is run by a local board, is the only other meaningful urban local authority.

The provincial town of Lupane is also run by a local board and has no proper urban area.

For the city’s efforts in service delivery and good corporate governance, aided by the tourism industry players, the local authority was named the Top Matabeleland North Urban Council.

The city was also named the Best Resort City of year 2022 at the Ceo’s Network awards.

This adds to four other individual awards given to the city’s officials for their outstanding work.

Victoria Falls Mayor was named Outstanding Mayor of the year in 2022, while Chamber Secretary Ms Kholwani Mangena is the Outstanding Chamber Secretary of year 2022 and Ms Sherinah Sibanda the Outstanding Engineer of year.  Mr Mandla Dingani was also named Outstanding PR of year 2022. All the awards were announced at the CEO’s Network.

Over the years the city has scooped gold at various awards and categories.

These include road maintenance of the year, public lighting of the year, waste management and sanitation of the year, best urban local authority of the year, head of audit of the year and head of housing and community services of the year, all in 2019.

During the same year, Victoria Falls City won head of communication of the year silver and bronze as an outstanding local authority of the year.

At the 2018 Megafest awards, Victoria Falls was winner in road maintenance, and runner in the outstanding local authority, waste management and sanitation, communication and public relations.

The city was second runner up best run urban local authority in 2018 when Town Clerk Mr Ronnie Dube was first runner up Town Clerk of the year

In an interview, said the local authority was excited that it had continued to dominate other councils in terms of corporate governance.

“We celebrate this recent award from the CSR Mat North awards which echoes the efforts towards development of our beautiful City of Victoria Falls.

“The Local Authority has been a perennial winner in a number of awards, a feat that emphasises its commitment to serve the community with distinction,” he said.

-@ncubeleon