Suburban
THE Greendale Residents and Ratepayers Association reconvened its annual general meeting last Friday to elect a new leadership for the residents’ association.
Outgoing chairperson of the GRRA Mr Francis Zimunya Nyamutsamba had been at the helm of the association since 2010.
He told the initial AGM held earlier last month that he had held on to the position for the almost 12 years because no residents from Ward 9 were forthcoming to take over the mantle from him resulting in his more than a decade stay in the leadership of the residents’ body.
Mr Nyamutsamba rightly pointed out that it was time for new people to take over the leadership of the residents’ association. In fact, the leadership renewal, which eventually took place last Friday, was long overdue. It is commendable that residents from Ward 9, which encompasses Greendale and Mandara and surrounding areas, moved to correct the untenable position of community leaders remaining in positions for long periods.
It is common cause that leadership renewal is a good practice because it offers others a chance to also come in and make their own mark in whatever sphere they are chosen to lead. New leaders also come with new ideas which might take the objectives or the work of the organisation to the next level. New leaders also come with renewed energy because they would want to make an impression and also make a difference.
While it is not given that new leaders will succeed, if there is change of leadership at particular intervals, then the incompetent incumbents can always be voted out of office or removed from office through a vote of no confidence or some other agreed way in terms of the organisation’s constitution. At last Friday’s reconvened GRRA AGM, Mr Charles Chirikure was elected to take over the leadership of the residents’ body. A new executive was also voted in to work with Mr Chirikure in a development which residents expect to spur the GRRA to greater scales in terms of pushing for service delivery. We urge residents of various wards in Harare to take an interest in the affairs of the communities in which they live.
Most of the work done under residents’ associations is voluntary but ratepayers should still attach importance to the task because it is about service delivery, security and welfare of residents in their neighbourhoods. The quest to establish organised residents’ associations and demand service delivery from the City of Harare has been quite encouraging. For a number of years, service delivery has been collapsing in Harare with no solution in sight to the crisis facing the capital city. Lack of refuse collection, non-working street lights and traffic lights, burst water pipes, worn out roads, noise and air pollution, illegal developments and poor waste management have been weighing down residents of the capital.
In the northern suburbs, residents have realised if they are not united and organised under residents’ associations or trusts, their clamour for service delivery might just remain a pipe dream. But the associations need change of guard from time to time.
