Zimpapers Logo

Blessings Chidakwa Municipal Correspondent
Chaos reigned supreme during a recent Chitungwiza Municipality full council meeting after councillors failed to deal with all the issues on the agenda because the generator at the council office is not working.

When it got dark and became apparent that nothing was being done to provide lighting some of the councillors started leaving the chamber while Mayor Cllr Lovemore Maiko was trying to call the house to order so that they could vote on whether to fast track the meeting by passing resolutions or shelve it for another day.

The meeting took longer than usual as councillors chose to spend more time discussing personal issues at the expense of service delivery issues that are critical to their constituencies.

Mayor Maiko had a torrid time trying to rein in the councillors.

Perennial challenges including water woes and sewer bursts have continued affecting Chitungwiza residents and the lack of seriousness on the part of the councillors further exacerbates the situation.

“Our generator is not functioning properly, so due to the power outages our meeting had to be cut short and we will proceed with it on another day,” said Mayor Maiko.

He also took a swipe at councillors who had spent the better part of the day discussing land issues which they were alleged to have ‘personal’ interests in.

“We will end up thinking that some of the councillors have personal interests on certain matters under discussion. We are having many debates centred on issues of stands and land instead of service delivery,” he said.

The controversy continued to be witnessed during the course of the day as both management and councillors lacked depth on council issues as they allegedly failed to understand the purpose of an estate account.

Management had given a seal of approval to a resolution that council diverts funds from an estate account and use them for the construction of a vending mall.

Cllr Richard Chamutsa had to intervene saying the estate account requires consultation with the parent ministry.

“The estate account gave the previous council hard times with the ministry. I am not sure if the law that applied then has changed. Let us put that matter aside it requires many consultations with ministry lest we may fail to handle it later,” he said.