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Walter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent

Residents here have raised concern over the manner in which council conducted budget consultative meetings for the 2019 fiscal year.

They accused the local authority of ambushing them and that they were not given enough time to prepare their presentations.

In separate interviews, residents said they got to hear of the consultative meetings a few days after the process had been closed.

Most residents alleged that the delay was deliberately done to rubber stamp the budget without stakeholders’ input though they were equal role players.

Masvingo United Ratepayers and Residents Alliance spokesperson, Mr Godfrey Mutimba said: “We are worried with the behaviour of our city fathers. It shows they do not respect residents and they seek to rubber stamp the budget.

“The 2019 budget will not be all inclusive of people’s views and aspirations because notices on consultations were sent to a few residents. It was evident with the low turnout that many people were not notified of these meetings.”

Disabled Amalgamation Community Trust (DACT) provincial director Mr Henry Chivhanga said the city fathers were ignorant of the role of residents in civic and local governance matters.

He said it was disheartening that most of those living with disabilities were left out of the budgeting process.

“We are failing to understand what the councillors want to achieved by leaving out residents in decision major making processes,” said Mr Chivhanga.

“We are the people who matter the most and it boggles the mind why we were side-lined.

“In fact, we will reject a budget which lacks our input. We should have been involved in the processes from the onset.”

Masvingo deputy mayor Councillor Wellington Mahwende said it was unfortunate that they had to railroad the budget formulation in line with an urgent directive from their parent ministry.

“The directive came from the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing as a short notice and we had only one week to conduct the consultations,” he said.

“Residents should bear with us. However, the figures we saw at our meetings were encouraging except in Ward 4 where the meeting was poorly attended.”

Among other things in the proposed 2019 annual budget, the local authority intends to review rates and water tariffs from $1 to $1.40 and from 80 cents to $1.30 respectively.

The budget has remained unchanged at $27 million.