CHENGETAI MURIMWA IN GWERU
The Gweru City Council is in the eye of a storm after splurging US$176,000 on a Toyota Prado for town clerk Elizabeth Gwatipedza at a time when the local authority is struggling to provide service delivery to residents, Business Times can report.
Gwatipedza has since been fired from the local authority.
The purchase of the vehicle in 2018 has angered residents who are demanding that the council sell the brand new Prado (pictured) and channel the money towards service delivery.
“We have said that the car should be exchanged for utility vehicles that will benefit residents. We have a serious challenge of cars that respond to burst sewer pipes and burst water pipes,” Cornelia Selipiwe, a director of Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association, told Business Times this week.
“We understand the car is going to be allocated to the mayor so that he can use it, we are not going to allow that. We are going to write a letter to them and the Ministry of Local Government seeking clarification on how they are going to use the car.”
Selipiwe has warned that residents would demonstrate if they do not get satisfactory responses.
“…we can’t allow such an expensive vehicle when our roads are in a deplorable state, when we don’t have water coming out and refuse not being collected,” Selipiwe said.
One resident, Maxine Chirimuuta, suggested boycotting rates.
“We should have a social contract with the council. They should also know that residents can take them to court for failing to provide basic service delivery,” Chirimuuta said.
Another resident, Tsitsi Maunganidze, said: “Our roads are in bad condition, whoever will be driving that car will not enjoy it with the state of our roads.”
Gweru City Council spokesperson, Vimbai Chingwaramusee, told the Business Times that the vehicle will be used as a “pool car”.
“That car will not be used by anyone else, it’s a pool car and it will be used by anyone who will be on council business. If residents have complaints against operations at the local authority, they are free to launch a formal complaint and then it goes through the normal process,” Chingwaramusee said.
