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Midlands Bureau

Gweru City councillors have unanimously admitted failure to deliver service and promised to cooperate with the Government and private businesses  to succeed.

Speaking during a full council meeting on the state of roads on Thursday, the councillors concurred the state of the roads was deplorable while shouldering responsibility.

Like almost all urban authorities Gweru City Council is run by the opposition.

Deputy mayor Clr Cleopas Shiri said it was time that councillors and the local authority admit failure on service delivery.

Said Clr Shiri: “As a council, it’s clear we have failed to maintain our roads. We don’t have the capacity and the roads are in a deplorable state hence the need to engage a private contractor to rehabilitate them. It’s better to find a contractor with the ability to maintain our roads and the council should instead look at legacy development challenges we have.”.

The council had failed to service land on areas where they had allocated residential stands long back. 

“I am saying this because there are some wards we gave people stands and these stands have gone for 9 to 10 years without being serviced,” he said.

Clr Farai Muza of ward 15 concurred saying the local authority was struggling to offer basic service delivery to the residents. 

“We have roads that are still impassable and littered with potholes. We have really failed our people and even some of the roads which were taken over by the Government, they have stalled and some have taken months without being completed,” he said. City mayor, Clr Hamutendi Kombayi said the local authority should work hand-in-hand with the Government to address the road situation in the city.

“There is a need for unity and collaboration between council and Government on these developmental issues, we can’t isolate ourselves. The challenge is that at times, we don’t liaise resulting in discord in some of the projects,” he said.

Government last year announced it was taking over the rehabilitation of roads in cities following growing concerns of corruption as the opposition failed to supervise the running of these cities they control.