By Pretty Manyewe
Harare City Council has hit hard and desperate times as it launched a desperate plea to the corporate world and individuals for assistance in their quest to improve service delivery .
The local authority has been struggling to provide basic amenities to its ratepayers, with the latest being failure to clear waste.
In a press statement, Harare Mayor Musarurwa Mutizwa made a passionate appeal to corporates and individuals to come on board and assist the city deal with the issue of uncollected garbage.
“We are making a passionate appeal to corporates and individuals to come on board and assist the city deal with the issue of uncollected garbage and help us to maintain continuity. Our appeal extends to the beautification programme,” said Mutizwa.
Harare city has been making headlines for the wrong reasons, mainly for poor service delivery, uncollected garbage, burst waters pipes, and erratic yet contaminated water, to name but a few.
Mayor Mutizwa has been hosting a series interactive workshops with Local Government Ministry officials to find a solution to a myriad of problems bedevilling the Capital City.
However, judging from his tone in a recent press statement, it is evident that the level of desperation has reached new highs.
The city is now asking all and sundry, the corporate world and individuals for assistance.
The latest SOS call by the City fathers is tacit admission of failure by the MDC Alliance run City Council to deliver on their service delivery promise to the residents of Harare.
The city blames the ever-mounting debts by city residents who allegedly owe the local authority over ZWL$7.8billion in unpaid rates and water charges.
“Failure to pay over the years has gotten us to where we are today. Council is owed over ZWL$7.8 billion which if paid today will go a long way in addressing the sticking service delivery areas. Services were provided and they did not pay. They are now holding the city at ransom,” he claimed.
However, the reason the city has failed over the years is mostly due to corrupt and illicit activities that the council officials have engaged in that led to mismanagement and misappropriation of funds.
Currently, the city is operating 20 per cent of their garbage collection equipment because the rest have not been maintained or repaired over a long period.
“We have a wish list which we want assistance with. We are currently operating with 20 per cent of our garbage collection fleet. We appeal to individuals and corporates to assist in carrying out a blitz to remove illegal dumps through the provision of pieces of equipment such as trucks and dumpers.
We also appeal to get the rest of the equipment running in the shortest time possible. Our appeal also goes out to corporates to assist in implementing programmes to recycle and reuse waste at source or community-based initiatives,” said Mutizwa.
Surprisingly, the city does not extend the begging bowl when buying cars for their executive staffers.
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