Byo City Council four years on
THIS past week marked exactly four years since Bulawayo councillors took their oaths of office and for many it is time to introspect on the journey the city has so far covered under their stewardship.
On 7 September 2018, lawyer and Ward 23 Souncillor, Solomon Mguni was elected by fellow councillors to the coveted post of mayor. In his acceptance speech Clr Mguni made a promise that he would lead council and ensure that they deliver a fair, equitable, quality and efficient services to the City of Bulawayo.
“Social amenities, in particular water sanitisation, refuse collection, functional clinics, street lighting and pothole free roads, will be the centre of my administration. We will need our parent ministry to allow us to travel wide and broad and leverage on our twin cities in order to tap investment and fresh capital. Special economic zones will be aggressively pushed by my office. Bulawayo must regain its status of being the industrial hub in this mayoral term. We must ensure that the city is regenerated, repaired, refurbished and most of all, remodelled,” promised Clr Mguni.
Speaking at last Wednesday’s full council meeting, Clr Mguni acknowledged that they were now four years into their tenure as councillors, noting that it had mainly been an uphill task with both challenges and successes.
“Today marks four years when we took the oath to lead this city and we are meeting when the city is facing a lot of challenges from refuse collection, water delivery up to our roads. We think that it is time that we put our hands on the deck, every one of us, management and staff, in unity so we are able to deliver quality services albeit under difficult circumstances,” he said.
Four years after they were sworn into office, Bulawayo residents have mixed feelings regarding the performance of the current crop of councillors together with the management led by the Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube.
A few issues that cannot be disputed are that four years on, the city is still enduring perennial water challenges, with some suburbs already enduring four to five days without water supplies, despite the local authority claiming that the water shedding schedule is pegged at 48 hours, stretching to 72 hours at times when reservoir levels continue to drop.
Refuse collection has been at its worst with dumps of litter now a common site in the Central Business District (CBD), which saw the local authority last week announcing that it would be launching a “spring cleaning” exercise in a bid to spruce up the city’s image.
On a positive note the Government came through with the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme which has seen most of the city’s ailing road network rehabilitated under the programme. Positives have also been recorded in terms of housing delivery that has seen the local authority commissioning two housing projects in Emganwini — 114 by Natwecraft Investments and 268 stands that were serviced by TCI International. This came after the local authority adopted a new housing development strategy, where they engage developers with their own funds, instead of the traditional presale concept.
A third project in Cowdray Park, that was developed using the same strategy is set to be commissioned where the developer — Aggregate Private Limited is working round the clock to complete the project. However, it is during their tenure in office that the councillors together with management played a pivotal role in engaging the controversial parking management system tender in partnership with Tendy Three Investments.
Since its commissioning in February this year, the project has attracted the wrath of motorists and the business community who have said the local authority did not consult them in coming up with the project.
Contacted for comment, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) secretary for administration, Mr Thembelani Dube said in the past four years they had seen a majority of the councillors relegating their duties to council management.
He said they felt like councillors were now failing to play an oversight role in council chambers which had led to council management doing as they wish without anyone monitoring them.
“Over the past four years, we have seen a majority of councillors failing to fully play their oversight role as representatives of their particular wards in council. To be blunt they are now captured by management. They are now there just to rubber stamp what management says instead of carrying out the mandate which they were sent by the residents to do, which is protecting the rates they pay and ensuring service delivery in the city.
“Residents have honestly lost hope in their councillors as instead of representing them, these councillors are representing managers, which is why you find some of these consultative meetings like the budget review are largely being boycotted by the residents as they no longer have confidence in their councillors,” said Mr Dube.
He further said some of the councillors have forgotten their wards as they have not been holding feedback meetings as mandated by the Urban Councils Act.
“It’s sad that our councillors during their tenure have not started or finished any major project, even the roads we are now relying on Government through their ERRP facility yet every year we are passing a budget for road repairs but seemingly nothing is being done.
Even in terms of water and sewer we cannot attribute anything to this crop of councillors, instead we thank the Africa Development Bank for the US$37 million loan facility, without which clearly, we could be in a desperate situation. Our call is for the councillors to seriously introspect and pull up their socks,” said Mr Dube.
Bulawayo United Residents Association (BURA) chairperson Mr Winos Dube concurred with his BPRA colleague, saying if he was to mark them out of 100 percent, he would give them 45 percent for their performance in the past four years.
“When we are judging the performance of the councillors, we are strictly focusing on service delivery and if we are being honest things are bad in Bulawayo. Look at housing for example one would have expected a wholesome approach to benefit people on the housing waiting list but they have provided just a few houses which at the same time are quite expensive meaning that home ownership in the city has become exclusive.
“In terms of roads we have since been saved by the ERRP facility while in terms of investment, yes they can argue that their parking management system partnership is an investment but while it has a lot of pros, as long as motorists continuously complain that it’s not affordable it erases all those positives,” said the BURA chairperson.
He said it was worrying that once again this year the city would be talking about the water challenges with the councillors already looking at the Government to work towards completing the GwayiShangani pipeline.
“What is worrying is that the water shedding schedule has begun earlier than expected, with council initially telling us it’s because of burst water pipes, highly likely this year will be the worst in terms of the water crisis if the rains do not come early,” said Mr Dube.
One thing which both the BURA chairperson and BPRA secretary for administration had in agreement was that the city councillors had a lot to do to ensure that their time in the council chambers is at least remembered. The big question, however is, would time allow them to change and deliver or they have just served their term?