Mandara meets to form residents’ association

Suburban Reporter

Mandara residents will meet this weekend to launch the Mandara Residents and Ratepayers Association (MRRA) to champion service delivery in the suburb.

Top of the agenda at the meeting will be the adoption of the proposed constitution for MRRA, setting membership fees, election of committee members and updates on service delivery. Organisers have been circulating the draft constitution on residents’ online platforms  and urging them take note of the meeting scheduled for Saturday August 3, 2024 at Bliss Gardens along Pringle Road in the suburb.

Residents believe the association will give more weight to their efforts to demand for service delivery as they been doing some lobbying to the authorities but without a formally constituted residents’ association.

According to the draft constitution, the MRRA will represent residents and ratepayers of Mandara and shall be headquartered in the suburb. The MRRA can be affiliated to other residents’ associations.

The MRRA will be a body corporate and have the power to institute or to defend any legal action, when necessary and when required to do so by the executive committee and shall be capable of suing or to be sued in its own name.

The objectives of the MRRA are:

• To mobilise residents to participate in the development of Mandara, its improvement and ensure the provision of quality services to residents by Harare City Council and other service providers.
• To improve the quality of life for residents by ensuring quality services in areas, including but not limited to, education, electricity, environmental protection, health, infrastructure development, roads, security, social services, sport and recreation and water supply and sanitation.

The association shall be non-partisan and shall not be affiliated to nor serve the interests of any political party.

The MRRA shall consist of general members and an Executive Committee which will manage the residents’ association.

The executive committee shall consist of 15 (fifteen) members of the association, together with any persons co-opted or appointed thereto in terms of Article 9.

The Executive Committee shall consist of the following persons:

•  Chairman;
• Vice – Chairman;
• Treasurer;
• Vice – Treasurer;
• Secretary for Administration and Management;
• Vice Secretary for Administration and Management;
• A Development Chair;
• 8 (eight) Committee members

The election of the Executive Committee shall take place at an annual general meeting of the MRRA. The members of the Executive Committee shall, subject to the provisions of Articles 9 and 12, be elected for a period of two years and shall be eligible for re-election after they have ceased to be members of the Executive Committee.

Members of the Executive shall not be eligible for re-election after serving two consecutive terms.

Duties of the Executive Committee shall be to implement, fulfil and execute the objects of the Association to:

•  ensure service delivery to Mandara
• protect the environment and livelihoods of the residents and ratepayers of Mandara; and
• to enhance community life.

The Executive Committee shall have the power;

•  to appoint and/or entrust the study of certain matters to one or more sub-committees; members of such sub-committees;
• to co-opt not more than two persons on to the Executive Committee for a period not exceeding one year in order to assist the Executive Committee in the exercise of its functions;
• to appoint any member of the Association to fill any temporary or permanent vacancy on the Executive Committee; provided that any person so appointed shall cease to be a member of the Executive Committee on the date of the next annual general meeting of the Association after his appointment, unless elected to the Executive Committee at that meeting;
• to call a meeting of members as and when it deems necessary.

Subject to the provisions of Article 10, the powers of the Executive Committee are also to prescribe the procedure for meeting of the Executive Committee, to;

• fundraise and organise fundraising activities on behalf of the Association;
• hold, deal with and invest the funds and other property of the Association on behalf of the Association;
• administer and manage the affairs of the Association; and
• do any act or thing on behalf of the Association which will, in the opinion of the Executive Committee, effect or further any of the objects of the Association or any resolution passed by a majority of members present and voting at an annual general meeting of the Association.

The Executive Committee shall define sub-committees as may be necessary to have oversight of the developmental issues affecting the neighbourhood to form the Mandara Development Committee.