Suburban
In the past two weeks two residents’ associations from Harare’s northern suburbs held an annual general meeting and an update meeting to brief residents on service delivery issues.
This week on Tuesday, the Borrowdale Ratepayers and Residents Association (BRRA) held its annual general meeting (AGM) where the members made a resolution to retain the current executive committee for another year.
The tenure of the BRRA executive committee led by Mr Robert Mutyasira was supposed to lapse on March 21, 2023 with a new leadership due for election. But the residents showed their trust and confidence in the committee by retaining them for another year.
It was the democratic choice of the residents and their decision must be respected. However, what was worrying was the level of attendance at the meeting as most residents failed to turn up.
Across town in Greendale, the Greendale Residents and Ratepayers Association (GRRA) held an update meeting where the association’s leadership briefed residents about service delivery issues in Ward 9 which covers Greendale, Mandara, Athlone, Msasa, Letombo and Manresa.
The meeting touched on a number of issues but residents mainly expressed concern over the duplication of efforts on service delivery and community affairs by the GRRA and community leader Mr Brian Shenje.
Some Ward 9 residents felt the GRRA should take the lead in all efforts while others felt Mr Shenje was also doing a good job despite having resigned from the GRRA executive committee. Mr Shenje later told Suburban that he left because the GRRA’s current structures and policies of the body were not “really conducive for development in the area.”
These two events in Borrowdale and Greendale must be commended despite both the two bodies facing low participation by residents and duplication in the case of the GRRA.
We urge Ward 18 residents in Borrowdale to take an interest in their affairs of their community and take advantage of the BRRA which is an established residents’ body to help take its work to a level higher.
In Greendale, we urge the residents to find each other and do away with differences, which we think can be amicably resolved, to put a spring and unity in the GRRA’s work.
The two meetings showed that there is some vibrancy in terms of residents trying to come together to push for service delivery.
It is important for the two bodies to address the problems they are currently facing, which we think are minor, and should not derail progress.
Dialogue among residents will help in Greendale while in Borrowdale the BRRA is already moving to solve the issue of apathy by coopting a member in charge of information technology to help with the body’s publicity to make it more visible.
In the same vein, Harare Ward 17 Residents Association has invited residents of the ward (Mt Pleasant and surrounding suburbs) to attend a meeting on Saturday to review the Borrowdale Racecourse Development Plan.
Residents should attend the meeting as it deals with infrastructure issues, land use development control and other socio-economic factors.
