Suburban
HARARE Mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume recently acknowledged that although the city has a mandate to promote sport, it must ensure service delivery takes precedence over all its other activities.
Suburban Reporter
Presenting his State of the City of Address two weeks ago, Cllr Mafume, notably in view of the criticism being directed at council by Harare residents over the municipality’s funding of a soccer team and other sporting activities, conceded that council’s core business should be service delivery. He, however, said the municipality still has a role to play in sport as part of helping youths to have something to occupy them and prevent the youths from engaging in social vices associated with idleness.
“Funding for sporting disciplines: While the City has a mandate to promote sport, we also need to balance and ensure that service delivery is prioritised.
“We have a serious challenge of drugs and substance abuse in Harare and this is adversely affecting the youths who are the future of this country.
As a local authority we have an important role to play so we will implement sport and recreation programmes so that the young people are involved,” said Cllr Mafume.
The City of Harare will be developing a sports policy to guide the funding of sporting activities in the capital city, he further said.
“We are also developing a sports policy which will guide the development and funding of sporting activities in the City. Sport takes up 0.05 percent of the budget for the 2022 financial year.”
Cllr Mafume said the major thrust for the city should be refurbishment of sporting facilities in Harare.
“Of major interest to the residents is the refurbishment of city stadia which are currently closed because of failure to meet FIFA standards.
“We are mindful of the state of various council sporting facilities that is our swimming pools, tennis courts, City Sports Centre and open playgrounds which used to be the centre of attraction for our young boys and girls.
“We will continue to unlock funds so that we restore these facilities to their desired state and remove our youths from the streets and the vagaries of substance and drug abuse.”
In June Highlands residents once again questioned why they must continue paying rates and service charges to the City of Harare when the municipality is not providing services and splurging US$2,3 million on funding a football team. The residents expressed frustration over the fact that they have to beg the municipality to collect their refuse when the council demands payments yet fails to provide services.
The residents said the City of Harare was supposed to collect garbage once every week before introducing the twice a month schedule but they would be lucky to have their garbage collected.
Feeling robbed and neglected by the local authority, the residents have been urging each other to take a stand against such theft.
The residents told Highlands district officer Mr Bruce Savanhu to take note of their complaints because they were fed up of being made to pay for non-existent services. It was unfair for the ratepayers to continuing paying while council employees like Mr Savanhu continued to draw their salaries but doing nothing to service delivery concerns, residents argued. They pointed out that they have not had council tap water since December 2017 with the municipality pleading lack of resources to fix the water problem but funding a football team Harare City which plays in the country’s top flight league, the Premier Soccer League.
Other residents said they have not had council tap water for the past 12 years and felt compelled to dump their garbage, which has been piling at their homes for the past three months, at Highlands District Office where the City of Harare refuse compactor would pick it from.
It emerged in June that council had recommended a US$2,3 million supplementary budget to bankroll its soccer team, Harare City, further justifying the residents’ questioning of its priorities.
A joint report of council’s Information and Publicity and Finance committees, indicates Harare is mulling a supplementary budget to finance the football team in the second part of the soccer season, which runs from July to December. The report said council has failed to secure sponsorship for the team hence the need for a supplementary budget, which will be used to pay players, coaches and other members of the technical team such as doctors and fitness trainers.
