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Harare City Council has been forced to repair two roads in Avondale — Ridge and Mount — after being sued for negligence. Businessman Mr Maxwell Manatsa recently approached the High Court seeking an order to have council repair the two roads which he said were in a deplorable state and costing him a fortune in vehicle maintenance.

Thankfully, this time around council had the presence of sense not to waste ratepayers’ money contesting the matter given the precedent set by the Supreme Court in 2010 when it upheld a High Court ruling ordering the same council to pay for repairs to a city resident, Ms Pindie Nyandoro’s Mercedes Benz vehicle after it was damaged when she hit a pothole along Enterprise Road.

Another victim of council negligence, Mr Everisto Mungate, is suing the city for US$300 000 after he broke his leg when he fell into an unsecured drain earlier this year.

It has become common for council to abandon such drains midway, posing a serious threat to pedestrians and vehicles.

We indeed appreciate Mr Mungate’s agony and he has every right to sue.

Our gripe is with council. US$300 000 is a lot of money, were Mr Mungate to be granted his wish. Even if he doesn’t get that figure, council still has to spend money defending the case in the courts.

Is that how council should be spending ratepayers’ money?

We want to thank Mr Manatsa for his bold decision to take council to court.

What we find unpalatable is the fact that council needs to be taken to court before it can render a service that is the right of every ratepayer.

There are many roads in all residential areas which are most likely in a worse state of disrepair than the ones cited by Mr Manatsa in Avondale.

Daily, residents have to dodge craters on the road, if they are lucky, or else crawl through them, to find their way to work.

Vehicles suffer slow damages on the suspension because of the low speed. But repairs to vehicles are more frequent and thus more expensive for the motoring public. Ms Nyandoro’s case was more dramatic — the vehicle’s steering rack and tie-rod ends were damaged after she hit the pothole — enabling her to immediately seek remedial action from council.

Mr Manatsa’s lawyer said the city council had repaired the roads on October 4, 2014, “after having received the application for a mandatory interdict compelling them (council) to repair the roads”.

He was happy that council had acted quickly, observing tellingly; “Hopefully next time it will not take a High Court application for them to attend to their lawful mandate.”

That settles it. Council has a lawful mandate to meet the daily needs of ratepayers for potable water, safe, comfortable roads and clean surroundings. We should not risk disease outbreaks and suffer inordinate vehicle repair costs because council is unmindful of its lawful mandate.

We have no doubt that in such an event, ratepayers have a legal right to stop paying for what is not available or is below standard in the case of water and refuse collection. It should not be the duty of citizens to waste their resources engaging lawyers to force council to fulfil its lawful mandate.

Councillors and council officials have a duty to deliver fully to city residents, or at least to ratepayers. Thereafter council can demand full payment.

It is criminal that council has to respond to individual lawsuits for it to carry out its lawful mandate to maintain roads, provide street lighting and water and to collect garbage on a regular basis.

This is completely unacceptable dereliction of duty.