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NewsDay

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Incompetent councillors must go

Opinion & Analysis
In yesterday’s issue, we published the photograph of a woman who got stuck in a drainage trap cage on Wednesday.

In yesterday’s issue, we published the photograph of a woman who got stuck in a drainage trap cage on Wednesday.

NewsDay Editorial

The fire brigade had to use cutting torches to free the woman’s leg. This incident is a graphic indictment of council’s attitude towards service delivery.

Incidents like the one we published yesterday are a tip of the iceberg. The woman was lucky to come out of that incident alive without being maimed for life.

In 1997, a man fell into a drainage trap near NSSA Building in full view of his infant son and perished. His body was later recovered kilometres away from the spot he met his fate. But to council, it seems as if people’s deaths due to inept service delivery are just a matter of course.

And the evidence is there for all to see — water unfit for human consumption, potholed roads, dangerous drain traps and uncollected garbage, among other things.

When will the city fathers wake up to the fact that their mandate is neither to engage in corrupt activities nor to use council positions to fight political wars, but to ensure proper service delivery?

The situation is made worse by a minister whose bigotry makes him unable to see councils as service delivery institutions rather than battlegrounds for cheap political goals.

If council’s nonchalant attitude to service delivery does not change, it risks being culpable of some kind of genocide as nearly happened in 2008 when a cholera outbreak claimed the lives of more than 4 000 people.

It is incumbent upon the electorate to ensure that they vote into office people who make good councillors, people with a vision to create a better Zimbabwe for everyone.

Before deciding on candidates, the electorate should first scrutinise them as they risk resending selfish demagogues into the corridors of council.

The electorate should think about service delivery first and politics last when they vote people to represent their interests in council.

Service delivery affects everyone across the political divide. We should not continue to allow ourselves as a nation to give power to people whose interests are far removed from serving us, people who view the suffering and death of citizens due to poor service delivery simply as one of those things as it were.

Come next election, let these people be kicked out of the corridors of power.

It is time people united against non-performing councillors and show them the exit door. Let us throw political partisanship through the window and allow reasoning to guide us as we vote for councillors in the next poll.

People should not let political allegiance hold them to ransom at the expense of efficient service delivery.