Boot out incompetent opposition: President
INEPT councillors and National Assembly members from the opposition have led to the decay in the capital over the past 20 years and must be booted out to improve service delivery, President Mnangagwa has said.
He also indicated that the Government will give title deeds and regularise informal settlements such as Epworth after the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development finalise a geo-mapping exercise to facilitate the process.
Addressing an oversubscribed star rally in Epworth yesterday, where he launched ZANU PF’s national election campaign ahead of the March 26 by-elections, President Mnangagwa urged residents to vote for ZANU PF MPs and councillors to arrest years of deterioration in infrastructure and service delivery.
“If you look at Harare now, which has been run by the incompetent opposition for over 20 years, there has been poor service delivery,” he said.
“Refuse is not being collected, sewage is flowing everywhere and all they can chant is CCC while the sewage is flowing.
“There are potholes everywhere and corruption is so rife. But now we can remove them from the council through the vote.”
He said the opposition cannot be trusted with leadership positions as most officials in Harare were currently facing corruption charges in courts.
“So when we vote for our local councillors, it’s an opportunity to vote for our candidates and ensure that service delivery improves. Just look at what we are doing as Central Government: We have adopted the roads in urban centres.”
In addition to providing title deeds for Harare residents, the President added, informal settlements are also being prioritised for various infrastructure development programmes.
“We have decided that we should give title deeds to residents in settlements like Epworth, Harare South and Caledonia. Treasury allocated funds to the Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Ministry to buy equipment for a geo-spatial survey.
“We used this equipment for geo-spatial mapping in these areas and now we have maps which can help us create modern residential areas with roads, schools and other amenities.”
No one will be left homeless by the regularisation exercise as those who will be affected by the proper siting of settlements will be relocated to decent
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accommodation that is presently being constructed by the Government.
“Some of the roads we are going to construct will affect houses, but those affected will not be left homeless; they will be allocated flats somewhere else,” he said.
“Our housing minister Cde (Daniel) Garwe and his team are already at work as we are building flats so that those who are settled on areas where roads have to be constructed will be moved to those flats.
“We cannot displace people, no! We are not going to do that. Minister Murwira and his Geo-Spatial team are busy determining which people can be given title deeds.
“With the title deeds, it means the stand is now formally yours and no one can take it away from you. They were saying we should give out title deeds today, but I said we cannot do that at a rally, we have to follow proper procedure.”
President Mnangagwa promised Epworth residents a major road network overhaul in line with the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme.
“I am told that Domboramwari, Glenwood from Domboramwari shopping centre to Delport road, the roads are set for rehabilitation. Also from Overspill Quarry to parts of Delport road and Chiremba road, Sunway City as well as Harare-Chitungwiza, the roads are among those set for rehabilitation. I can assure you there will be results because the team is being supervised by VP Chiwenga, and I know he will make them work until they achieve their targets.”
The Government, he said, is pushing on all fronts to develop the country, with the majority of his 2018 election promises having already been fulfilled.
“In terms of water, we are constructing Kunzvi Dam here in Harare, and in Bulawayo, which has been facing severe water shortages over the years, we went to Nyamandlovu and drilled boreholes to extract water from an aquifer. Also, we constructed a water pipeline from the aquifer to supply Bulawayo. So we have greatly reduced the deficit there because Bulawayo is now getting 151 megalitres per day against a demand of 155 megalitres per day,” he said.
The construction of Gwai-Shangani Dam, which is set to be completed by year-end, will enhance water availability in Bulawayo and surrounding areas.
President Mnangagwa also revealed that the Government will go into a gas extraction partnership with Mozambique in Manica province.
“I was in Mozambique yesterday (Friday) where my brother Filipe Nyusi was commissioning some trains they bought from India. We discussed a number of areas where we could work together to build our economies. One of those areas is gas extraction in Buzi in Manica province.”
He also denounced countries that were putting pressure on Zimbabwe to conduct by-elections at the height of the Covid-19.
“There are people who were saying President Mnangagwa does not want by-elections because he is afraid of losing,” he said.
“This was not the case because we could not hold elections while the country was battling high Covid-19 infection rates.
“We had to protect the public because if we had mobilised people at that time like we did today, then those events would have been super-spreaders.
“We resisted that pressure, especially from some foreign countries, and said if you are so eager for elections do it in your countries, here we will only hold elections when the situation is conducive.
President Mnangagwa warned party officials implicated in vote rigging in the just-ended primary elections that they will face disciplinary action.