Bulawayo residents yesterday accused the government-appointed team investigating the city council of bias after it refused to accept submissions from residents’ associations.
According to the terms of reference for the team appointed by Local Government, Urban and Rural Development minister Ignatius Chombo, it was expected to collect submissions from various identifiable associations or interest groups.
But Bulawayo Progressive Residents’ Association (BPRA) co-ordinator Rodrick Fayayo said the team had snubbed his organisation’s representatives.
“BPRA as a stakeholder in the operations of council had sent its leaders to meet the investigations team to give it its position on the probe,” he said.
“Upon arriving at the city hall, BPRA leaders were informed the investigations team was out doing other undisclosed business in the city.
“When they called the investigations team to inform them of a desire to meet them as an interested party in the investigations, they were informed that the investigations team was no longer consulting stakeholders, which surprised BPRA given the probe only began last Thursday,” he said.
Fayayo said failure by the team to consult stakeholders was a sign it was “not conducting an impartial investigation”.
“It may already have a prejudiced position aimed at disrupting the operations of council to gain political mileage in a similar manner to what has been witnessed in other MDC-T-run local authorities in the past,” he added.
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“It is thus BPRA’s contention the conduct of the investigations team is an indication the team is inherently biased and not interested in conducting a holistic investigations and coming up with an objective outcome.”
The chairperson of the team Finnie Munyira confirmed they had stopped collecting submissions from stakeholders.
“We have finished, but we are making exceptions. There is a group that we are meeting later this afternoon,” he said yesterday without elaborating.
