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Corrupt Chitungwiza officials scare donors

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CHITUNGWIZA Municipal officials, who are in the habit of demanding bribes and the politicising service delivery, are scaring away donors

CHITUNGWIZA Municipal officials, who are in the habit of demanding bribes and the politicising service delivery, are scaring away donors willing to bail out the cash strapped council, it has been revealed.

EDGAR GWESHE Own correspondent

During a council meeting held on Monday, Ward 19 councillor Musa Makweza said some donors had offered to assist Chitungwiza Municipality, but backtracked following politicisation of service delivery and demand for bribes by some council officials.

“If you come with a donor, there are some council officials who will first look at what they are going to get,” he said.

“They have a tendency of demanding bribes from donors who want to carry out their work.

“Some donors are not willing to pay the bribes and the issue ends up being political and at the end of the day, the donors are left with no option but to leave.”

Makweza said he had a personal encounter in which he had sourced donor funding for the construction of public toilets in his ward. But the donors were turned away after stringent conditions were imposed to allow them to carry their project.

“As I speak, the donors are gone. Such a situation is in itself an obstacle to the development of this town,” he said.

Chitungwiza mayor Phillip Mutoti said donors should not be hindered from developing the dormitory town.

Mutoti complained to Chitungwiza town clerk George Makunde that the behavior of some council workers was negatively affecting service delivery.

He attributed the workers’ behavior to non-payment of salaries as well as politicisation of issues at Chitungwiza Town Council where some workers were perceived to be servicing wards of their political allies.

Makunde said council was alive to the situation and working on modalities to ensure that such problems were rectified.

“We have incentives that we would like to put in place to boost the morale of our workers. We would like to re-engineer the ego and impetus of the people to work,” he said.

Chitungwiza council workers have gone unpaid for 14 months and recently the local authority revealed that it was seeking a $25 million loan to pay workers’ salaries among other things.