BULAWAYO deputy mayor Amen Mpofu has accused Zanu PF politburo member Saviour Kasukuwere of making “cheap and childish political statements” after the minister blamed the MDC-T-led council for allegedly running down the city.
Report by Blondie Ndebele Own correspondent
In a statement yesterday, Mpofu said it was irresponsible for Kasukuwere to shift blame on the water crisis, saying they had inherited the problem from previous Zanu PF dominated councils.
“For him to say people are suffering in their city because of MDC councillors shows how childish he is,” Mpofu said.
“Bulawayo residents are suffering because of the mess created by previous policies of the Zanu PF-led government.”
In his address at a Zanu PF campaign rally at Stanley Square on Sunday, Kasukuwere accused the MDC-T-led council of turning the city into a village by drilling boreholes instead of providing long-term solutions to the water crisis.
Kasukuwere also said the water problems in the city were due to the residents’ failure to elect proper leadership.
However, Mpofu said since independence, the Zanu PF government had failed to build dams in Bulawayo.
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Mpofu said the government had also failed to maintain the dams that were built by the colonial regime.
“Zanu PF never maintained the few dams built by the white government from 1980 until 2000 when the MDC took over,” Mpofu said.
“We are drilling boreholes in order to save the residents from this mess caused by Zanu PF.”
Mpofu said Water Resources Management and Development minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo (MDC-T) had already provided concrete solutions to the water crisis during his short stint as minister-in-charge.
“When Sipepa Nkomo became the minister, we began to see the results,” he said.
“When was Mtshabezi built and how many ministers of water did we have since independence?”
The project has been completed and water from the pipeline which links Mtshabezi Dam and one of Bulawayo’s five supply dams, Umzingwane, is being pumped to the city on a trial basis.
