Local authorities have been accused of short-changing residents by hiking service fees without delivering basic amenities like water and roads among others, a residents lobby group has said.
Speaking to journalists in Harare, the Zimbabwe National Organisation of Association and Residents Trust (ZNOART) chairman Shepherd Chikomba accused local authorities of providing residents with unsafe water despite allocations of foreign currency from the Finance Ministry.
“The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development is on record saying that local authorities are receiving allocations of foreign currency for water treatment chemicals but local authorities continue to cite lack of chemicals as their reason for failing to provide residents with water,” said Chikomba
Drilling of boreholes in metropolitan areas, Chikombo said is not enough to ensure residents access clean water.
“Drilling boreholes in urban areas is not enough to ensure access to safe running water by residents. Many of the boreholes were drilled by numerous NGOs while local authorities are busy holding meaningless workshops in expensive hotels. What’s worse, most of these hotel venues are outside areas of jurisdiction of respective local authorities as a strategy to shamelessly line their pockets with hefty allowances,” he said.
Chikombo took a swipe at rampant corruption occurring in local authorities thereby impact on the social wellbeing of residents.
“In their bid to raise funds to appease their appetites for luxurious life, councils are corruptly selling stands at exorbitant prices, without taking cognizance of the impact of their actions on the well-being of residents. In their wisdom or lack of it, councils corruptly authorise land barons to parcel out land before regularisation and receiving kickbacks behind the scenes from such criminals,” he added.
Among other things, he called on for councils to explain the recent hike in rates by more than 300%.
Local authorities have recently been under spotlight after accusations of corrupt activities were raised particularly in Chitungwiza and Harare were councillors are alleged to be corruptly parceling out land on wetlands.
