Departing mayor blames lack of funding for council’s failure to carry out planned projects

BONGANI BHEBE

The  outgoing mayor of the city of Bulawayo, Solomon Mguni, has said the local authority has struggled to carry out planned projects over the past five years  largely due to lack of funding, Business Times can report.

More than 10 development projects, including Egodini, road and water schemes, were planned by the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) for the city’s commerce, economic growth, and service delivery in 2018.

The majority of the projects, however, were not completed.

Mguni also blamed recruitment freezes and natural attrition for the staff losses over the years, noting that the majority of them left for better opportunities.

According to him, this affected the standard and timeliness of the services delivered to ratepayers  and other stakeholders.

In his valedictory address to the rate payers early this week, Mguni said: “On the implementation of various services, the city of Bulawayo faced a number of constraints and challenges that affected our performance. Our major constraint was inadequate funding which affected all municipal services and affected most of the planned projects,” Mguni said.

He added: “Lack of capital funding continued to be a major setback as this inhibited the council from keeping its social infrastructure at a pristine and usable state.”

“The majority of the staff left for better opportunities as a result of a recruitment freeze and natural attrition over the years, which hindered the quality and speed of service delivery provided to clients and stakeholders. The council must be an attractive employer to both retain and attract talent in order to better deliver services.”

Some city suppliers, according to Mguni, have in the past demanded  payment in foreign currency.

“ Some of the city’s suppliers have also over the years been demanding payment in foreign currency and this affected the finalisation of many projects which also include  road projects. This has particularly been felt in specialised services and sole providers of services such as asphalt concrete (premix) which has a sole supplier in the Southern region of the country.

“This resulted in price escalation. The requirements of some suppliers such as upfront payments were in contrast to the provisions of the Procurement Act and affected the completion of projects, “he said.

Egodini, which was shut down in 2016 to make room for the construction of a mall and a modern bus rank, was one of the projects that was planned.

However, seven years after Terracotta assumed control of what was meant to be the modernization of Egodini, both formal and informal traders have had to endure stories of missed opportunities and broken promises.

Vendors have overrun the city’s pavements since Egodini closed, and they even forced Edgars, which was located at the intersection of Leopold Takawira Avenue and Herbert Chitepo Street, to close, claiming that the area was no longer suitable for its clientele.

At the end of February, Bulawayo council members even tried to give the contractor an ultimatum in order to force Egodini open for vending and public transportation, but nothing has changed since then.

The erratic disbursements by ZINARA, Mguni claimed, had an impact on road rehabilitation projects.