Ward 17 residents’ body holds inaugural meeting

01 Jul, 2022 - 00:07 0 Views
Ward 17 residents’ body  holds inaugural meeting Councillor Jacob Mafume

Suburban

THE newly-established residents’ body for Ward 17, the Mt Pleasant Owners and Residents Association (MPORA), held its inaugural meeting on Saturday where residents met to deliberate the roadmap for the new body. 

Peter Tanyanyiwa

Suburban Reporter

The meeting took place at the Kingdom People’s Church along The Chase in Mt Pleasant as residents of Ward 17 saw their long cherished objective of establishing a body to represent their interests in terms of service delivery come to fruition.

At the top of the newly formed residents’ body’s agenda is service delivery, focusing on water, issues involving refuse collection, roads and preservation of wetlands. 

A taskforce committee, which has been spearheading the formation of the residents’ association, will soon hold a virtual meeting to elect an executive committee after some adjustments to the draft constitution giving birth to the organisation. 

Residents said the MPORA constitution is expected to be finalised by end of this week and a date will be set either this weekend or early next week for the virtual meeting.

Saturday’s meeting was well attended and started promptly at 10am as participants were eager to get down to the business of the day.   Suburbs represented at the meeting included Mt Pleasant central, Northwood, Groombridge, Vainona, Borrowdale West, Pomona, Pomona Shopping Centre and Bond Shopping Centre. 

Residents who participated in the meeting passed a resolution to form a legal body, an association which will consist of committee members to run the affairs of the association. 

A sitting committee of about 15 volunteers will adopt the MPORA constitution and elect a chairperson and executive committee members.  Residents resolved that they want to get together and also work with other residents’ associations to deal with the concerns that are affecting suburbs in Ward 17 as a whole and of course the greater Harare area.

Mt Pleasant active resident and one of the focal people who have been pushing for the formation of the residents’ association Mr Lance Nkomozepi said residents were tired of having endless WhatsApp discussions without any resolutions and way forward. 

He, however, said things were about to change with formation of the residents’ body for Ward 17.

“The initiative was in response to the residents’ call for the urgent formation of a recognisable body. For so long we have been making noise on (residents’ service delivery) WhatsApp groups and individuals burnt out fixing things, making a plan for this service or the other. We were lone voices crying in the wilderness. We hope coming to work together is going to yield action and tangible development to our ward,’’ said Mr Nkomozepi.

“We sought advice throughout our walk from existing associations like BRAA (Borrowdale Ratepayers and Residents Association), a special thanks goes to Honourable (Allan) ‘Rusty’ Markham (Harare North Member of Parliament and former Ward 18 Councillor). There is a lots of areas of concern in the ward at the moment. 

“Cluster (houses) and blocks of flats developments putting pressure on already agonising service delivery. We are going to engage the City of Harare’s refuse department so we can adopt a refuse compactor specifically for our ward. We will be looking at decentralisation as well,” added Mr Nkomozepi.

Guests present at the meeting were Ward 17 Councillor Jacob Mafume, who is also the Mayor of Harare and Mt Pleasant District Officer Mrs Marian Mverechena who both praised the initiative and wished the residents well in their endeavour to push for service delivery under a united force.

“The formation of a residents’ association for Mt Pleasant is a positive development and it shows the residents’ willingness to push for development. These are residents who are focused and we support them as council,” said Clr Mafume.

Mrs Mverechena equally commended the residents of Ward 17 urging them to unite in their quest for services.

“We are delighted by this development as residents can now lobby for their own welfare officially as a body. We urge the residents to speak with one voice,” said Mrs Mverechena.

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