Suburban
Peter Tanyanyiwa Suburban Reporter
Harare residents’ representative bodies have told City of Harare councillors to own up and carry out their service delivery mandate.
According to the residents, several councillors have now folded their arms and have left their mandate in the hands of residents’ associations and active community leaders who are always keen to help their communities.
The residents reminded councillors that they were voted into office to represent residents and they should do justice.
In some wards, the councillors are being accused of being absentee representatives who only appear during election period and vanish soon after.
Zimbabwe Combined Residents and Ratepayers Association (ZICORRA) coordinator for Harare Mr Lawrence Kuleya said only a few councillors are carrying out their mandate while many disappear after elections and reappear towards another election season.
He said residents’ associations should only assist and not be the ones doing all the work as is the situation currently in Harare.
“Some councillors are visible and do their best to address residents’ plight throughout their term from when they are elected up until their term ends but these are very few and just a handful. The vast majority disappear once elected into office only to re-appear when they seek votes for re-election again. In some wards residents don’t even know who their councillor is. The councillors themselves in such wards are also completely out of touch with residents’ issues leaving residents and residents’ bodies, residents’ associations and residents committees in various wards to fend for themselves over issues councillors should be handling like service delivery. This is a sad state of affairs in wards which have such councillors. Residents associations exist to assist councils, Government Ministries and other stakeholders who deal with residents’ issues,” he said.
But Mr Kuleya said the councillors were becoming comfortable abdicating their role to residents.
“A councillor is a residents’ representative within council and is also a policymaker in council on behalf of residents. So concerning council issues, residents’ associations are just there to assist council and councillors to know problems within a ward and also recommend solutions. Because council or councillors in their individual capacity cannot go door to door to every resident to hear their problems or what they require from council and vice versa all the residents in the whole ward can’t go to council or their councillor, so residents’ associations assist in this regard. But this doesn’t mean that everything must be dumped on residents’ associations or residents themselves. Councillors and council must not take advantage of the goodwill of residents’ bodies,” he said.
Mr Kuleya said the solution to ending this problem lies in communication and accountability between councillors and residents. He said issues should be communicated through different channels to the responsible authorities.
“Every ward has its own system of disseminating information to residents. Residents associations also assist with this. So councillors must use the system that is applicable in their ward to update residents on issues they as residents raise. Accountability and updates from councillors in wards are very important. There must be continuous feedback on issues raised by residents. This is seriously lacking in most wards, very few residents know of the decisions being made by councillors within council chambers nor do they even get updates concerning the problems they want addressed in council. The end result is that when residents see these issues not being addressed they end up deciding on resolving their issues alone via their various residents’ associations within different wards whom in most cases get over burdened by workload that is not theirs especially over issues requiring councillors and council decisions,” said Mr Kuleya.
Borrowdale Ratepayers and Residents Association (BRRA) chairperson Mr Robert Mutyasira said the City of Harare has created a monster in the form of councillors which it cannot control and they have made council to be a failed institution.
He said the councillors have turned council into an institution, which is unable to sustain itself even with external assistance and in such cases, residents cannot sit and watch but may have to ready themselves to do even more.
“Residents may have to brace up for more interventions. The incoherence in CoH (City of Harare) is astonishing and we were hoping the councillors would leave the systems in some form of rehabilitated state before the expiry of their tenure. On the ground, we literally see the determination of our district officers to respond to the needs and anomalies within their areas of jurisdiction. They are our interface with the local authority but beyond them the system exhibits disorientation that would result in more compromised service delivery if residents did not intervene. We cannot comprehend how a system of a large public institution can have such gaps in while councillors, who sit regularly in committees, fail to address these issues in their deliberations,” said Mr Mutyasira.
He said Harare councillors have been ceremonial office holders from the start to the end of their term and have been conspicuous with their absence from the arena of activities towards the election period and now residents hardly notice the difference consequent to their presence or absence.
“Residents have been short changed and have no kind words for their ward leaders. The willingness of residents to assist council has unintentionally justified the dysfunctionality of councillors and inspired their abrogation from duty. Our hope is that the next batch of councillors will put aside their political victories from the day they accept office and focus on serving the communities they represent. Their availability and visibility is not negotiable but should be a mandatory requirement. The issues residents are faced with are not a mountain should these councillors coordinate the various arms of the municipality effectively,” said Mr Mutyasira.
