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Yeukai Karengezeka Herald Correspondent
Chitungwiza Municipality, which set aside $500 000 for the procurement of three service delivery vehicles, claims that it is failing to buy them due to fluctuating exchange rates. In an interview, Chitungwiza Municipality finance director Mrs Evangelista Machona said lack of foreign currency had affected the procurement of new vehicles.

“In our 2019 budget we set aside $500 000 for the procurement of two refuse compactors and one ambulance,” she said.
“At the time we drew up the budget, the amount was equivalent to US$500 000 because the exchange rate was 1:1 with the US dollar but because the exchange rate was floated that money is no longer enough to buy the required vehicles and suppliers are demanding to be paid in forex which we do not have. We also do not have a foreign currency Nostro account and the ratepayers are still making payments in RTGS dollars.”

She said that they applied to RBZ for forex but the bank was currently overwhelmed.
“We applied to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe some months back to be allocated forex to buy the vehicles and we were told that they are overwhelmed with requests at the moment. Many other crucial players on the market are in need of foreign currency,” she said.

Meanwhile, the local authority is failing to collect refuse in line with its schedule due to fuel shortages.
The situation has been further exacerbated by the continuous breakdown of its fleet. The local authority is also facing challenges with its emergency vehicles as its two ambulances are down, resulting in patients having to hire private cars to get to hospital.

When President Mnangagwa visited the town recently on National Clean-up Day he advised the local authority to designate sites in each area where residents can dump refuse so that it can be collected later since they were failing to do door-to-door collections.