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Sydney Mubaiwa in Zaka
Long-serving Zaka Rural District Council chair Councillor Cornilious Mapuranga has been re-elected to the position for the third consecutive term.

Clr Mapuranga (Zanu-PF ward 3) was elected unopposed and has served as councillor for Zaka RDC for 38 years after having first been elected councillor in the local authority in 1980.

The long-serving Zaka RDC councillor was elected during elections presided by District Administrator Mr Ndeya Nyede.

Zaka RDC has 34 councillors with 31 having been elected on a Zanu PF ticket and the remainder belonging to the MDC Alliance.

In his acceptance speech, Clr Mapuranga urged newly-elected councillors to work hard focusing on urgent challenges affecting the populous district.

He said council has a daunting task to improve service delivery in critical areas such as road rehabilitation, stands allocation, water and refuse collection.

Clr Mapuranga underscored the need to prioritise the provision of clean water and refuse collection at Jerera Growth point to avert outbreak of diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

“The newly-elected team of councillors should hit the ground running,” he said.

“At the moment the district is faced with a myriad of challenges, which include poor road network, illegal allocation of stands, shortage of water and challenges in refuse collection. We want to avoid outbreak of water-borne diseases and all we need to do is to value team work so that we steer development in Zaka,” he said.

Clr Mapuranga said it was important to cast aside political differences amongst councillors and unite to improve service delivery.

In his address Mr Nyede urged the councillors to work hard as one united team for the betterment of the district.

“We hope that you are going to work together as a team. Let us unite and work in unison despite political affiliations. The common goal we are targeting is to spearhead development in the entire district.”

“We have a challenge with illegal settlements at Jerera Growth Point and at Ndanga Business centre, we have to do away with that,” said Mr Nyede.

He said development of a good road network and availability of many rural health service centres should be among the top priorities for Zaka.

The swearing-in ceremony was witnessed by Zaka RDC chief executive Mr David Majaura, traditional leaders and other stakeholders.