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Municipal Reporter
Harare City Council must rebuild the residents’ confidence which has been compromised by corruption and poor service delivery, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe has said. Speaking at the Harare city service delivery charter stakeholders’ workshop yesterday, CCZ executive director Ms Rosemary Siyachitema said the city was not operating in a transparent manner.

“There is need for City of Harare to build residents’ confidence, given the background of poor service delivery,” she said.

“There have been numerous promises which have been made by council in the past which have not been fulfilled, so there is need to rebuild the people’s confidence.

“There has been the issue of corruption, which destroys every good plan that we can have. The problem with Zimbabweans is that we just point at corruption without taking any measures that would deter would-be offenders.”

Ms Siyachitema said the city’s service delivery charter should tackle the issue of corruption. “It is very disturbing when you hear that money is being diverted, this builds mistrust,” she said.

“Let us not waste time writing plans which are not happening and at the end of the day consumers pay for something which is not worthwhile.”

Harare mayor Mr Bernard Manyenyeni challenged city officials to be transparent and deliver on promises they will make in the service delivery charter.

He said the strategies should provide realistic targets. “What is put on paper should be fulfilled,” said Mr Manyenyeni.

“If we set deadlines for ourselves we should meet them. We need achievable benchmarks, benchmarks that you as stakeholders can also achieve if you were in the position of city officials,” he said.

Mr Manyenyeni said with the service delivery charter, the city council will not be working in the dark. The city’s acting district administration manager Mr Funny Machipisa said residents were critical and should be consulted if council was to achieve its goals.

Harare and its stakeholders are working on a service delivery charter. Among the targets in the draft charter is a promise by the city to pump at least 800 mega litres of water daily by 2016.

The city is pumping slightly over 450 mega litres to residents.