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Municipal Reporter

President Mnangagwa’s administration has been thanked by the opposition-controlled Harare City Council for assisting in infrastructural development, from renovation of the critical health facilities through the water and sewer reticulation to the roads and better law enforcement.

In its 2022 budget, the local authority expressed gratitude to President Mnangagwa for his timely intervention, including improved law enforcement in the city centre where the Zimbabwe Republic Police partnered municipal police to manage traffic during peak hours. Wards at Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital and Wilkins Hospital were renovated by Government, while renovation of Kuwadzana Clinic was in progress and the council expected to complete the construction of Glen Norah Chitubu Satellite Clinic by the end of 2021. 

“Devolution funds are paying for rehabilitation in Kuwadzana of 14km of collapsed sewer line (now 25 percent complete) and this should be finished by year end,” reads the budget statement.

Among other projects the council said were Government-funded included the upgrading of Morton Jaffray Laboratory which is 20 percent complete.

Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Plant has inadequate capacity to supply water to 1,5 million Harare residents.

The other projects funded by devolution funds from Government included construction of Crowborough sewer ponds (30 percent complete), scheduled to be complete by 31 December 2021.

Government intervened recently by availing $890 000 for the upgrading of 8 000 sewers in Glen View and Budiriro suburbs, the entire branch network running down each road.

The city’s roads are being rehabilitated by Government under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme, which has seen new surfaces being laid on several roads in the city.

This was after Government realised that the MDC-Alliance led council had neglected service delivery, despite collecting rates each month.

The opposition party was exposed for its failure to manage issues for a city like Harare, yet claiming it has the capacity to run the country.

Ratepayers have been complaining about the failure of the opposition to deliver its promises, which turned out to have been premised on false information in a bid to coerce residents to vote for the party.

Instead, the MDC Alliance’s run in Harare, and other cities, has become famous for its officials engaging in corruption, especially the grabbing of land and illegally parcelling it out.

Many MDC-Alliance councillors in Harare, including successive mayors from the opposition, have been arrested and appeared before the courts facing charges of corruption, mainly relating to illegal parcelling out of land.