Pampering executives improves city status: Mayor
MUTARE mayor Blessing Tandi has torched a storm by claiming that the council’s resolution to acquire top of the range vehicles for senior management will improve the city’s status.
He made the remarks this week at a United Mutare Residents Ratepayers Trust (UMRRT)-organised meeting on service delivery.
Tandi’s remarks came after councillors at the civic centre resolved that both Tandi and town clerk Joshua Maligwa would receive a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado each, while departmental heads would get Toyota Fortuners.
During the meeting, the mayor was grilled for attending numerous workshops at the expense of ratepayers.
“The issue of vehicles will give status to the city and the issue of workshops will empower council with ideas obtained from the workshops,” Tandi said.
A resident, John Zimunya said the city’s status was not determined by the type of vehicles driven by the mayor and his management team.
“The city’s status is not judged by the type of vehicles driven by its mayor and managers, but the level of service delivery; this is my humble contribution. When we look at the smart cities concept, we look at service delivery first,” he said.
“On vehicles, our mayor Blessing Tandi was very clear that it has nothing to do with service delivery, but their status. However, we have to look at our service delivery. We urge our municipality to be serious on the issues of service delivery,” UMRRT programmes director Edson Dube said.
“Instead of wasting money on luxurious things such as expensive bookings when attending workshops, they should improve on service delivery. We have poor roads, we need street lights and there are many issues that need to be addressed.”