NEWLY-ELECTED Mutare mayor Tatenda Nhamarare (MDC-T) says he believes at 30 years of age, he has what it takes to steer the eastern border city out of its current quagmire. NewsDay (ND) reporter Obey Manayiti on Tuesday had an exclusive interview with Nhamarare (TM) soon after his triumph over MDC-T party councillor Thomas Nyamupanedengu.
Below are excerpts of the interview:
ND: Congratulations Your Worship please tell us who you are.
TM: I am 30 years old. I was born and bred in Mutare. I am a family man blessed with one child. I have a Diploma in Management and Administration of Development Programmes. I joined politics at the age of 18. I was first elected councillor in 2008 at the age of 24. In the previous council, I was the chairperson of the finance committee. I am also currently the chairperson of City Rovers, a Division One soccer outfit owned by the City of Mutare.
ND: Being a councillor in the previous council, you are abreast with challenges the city is facing. Please highlight your priorities?
TM: We need to build confidence with the ratepayers and the business community by engaging them in whatever we do since they are the custodians of this city. The only way to go forward as a city is to engage our stakeholders and find a way of resolving our challenges. I think by engaging them we will go a long way in alleviating their plight.
ND: But what are Mutare’s specific problems and how do you intend to tackle them?
TM: First, we have water challenges in areas such as Hobhouse, Zimta, Dangamvura and others. We hope to fast track the completion of many stalled water projects such as the Chikanga-Dangamvura water project. Previously, we had some challenges in completing these projects and I hope water challenges will be a thing of the past here in Mutare if we work as a team. Besides water, we have to improve all the aspects of service delivery.
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ND: You are coming at a time when the city is facing dire financial constraints. Council employees are reported to have gone for months without receiving their salaries. What’s your strategy to address this problem?
TM: As you are aware, the City of Mutare is owed over $20 million, but before we came into office as a newly elected council, government issued a directive to scrap all arrears. We are now hoping that since the government knows our position that we relied so much on these revenue flows, we sincerely hope to get financial injection from the government. On the other hand, we hope to engage the ratepayers to pay up their new bills since we are entering a new chapter. We seriously need money to ensure that this city moves forward. We will also engage several companies such as the diamond-mining companies in Chiadzwa to help us as we are the capital city for the province. I hope they will be forthcoming. Our underlying motivation is to engage with different critical players and I am optimistic that this will yield positive results.
ND: Any specific policies that you think will help Mutare?
TM: As the 19 elected councillors for Mutare, we will sit down and deliberate on important areas where we need to develop. I know we will face some challenges in terms of policy making and implementation, but we will try our best to have proper policies to drive Mutare ahead.
ND: Can you give us an example of where you think it’s critical for you as city fathers to pursue?
TM: The issue of informal traders. This sector is now the biggest employer in the whole country and I hope in this new council term we will see how best to make everyone happy, I mean the council, informal traders and our environment.
We also hope the government will help us in resuscitating the crippled industries such as Mutare Board and Paper Mills, Cains Foods, PG, Karina and others because they are the biggest industries in the city which previously helped us financially through paying rates. On a bigger spectrum, we will reduce unemployment and our people will be able to pay their rates.
ND: Do you foresee any challenges in working with other councillors given that you have different backgrounds or even that you are younger than most of them?
TM: I hope to make sure that councillors put the interests of the city and residents at heart rather than pursue personal agendas.
Judging from the experience I have in council, personal agendas tend to carry the day and at the end, development will suffer. Ratepayers will start to complain and that is the beginning of problems.
