CHITUNGWIZA Residents’ Trust (Chitrest) is up in arms against the MDC-T-dominated Chitungwiza Municipality for allegedly snubbing the organisation’s Policy Dialogue Forum meant to discuss the new Constitution’s Bill of Rights as it relates to residents.
by PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
According to Chitrest, council committee chairpersons and deputy mayor Philip Mutodi allegedly snubbed the function on Thursday last week despite earlier confirming attendance.
The forum was meant to discuss second generation rights, for example the Right to Health Care (Section 76) and the Right to Safe, Clean and Potable Water (Section 77), among others, which the council seems to be breaching with impunity.
Chitrest director Marvellous Kumalo said they were disappointed by the action of the elected councillors.
“They did not even care to give an apology despite that they had acknowledged the invitations and confirmed their attendance before the event was held. We feel they no longer prioritise the electorate once they are in office,” Kumalo said.
Chitungwiza residents face erratic water supplies while refuse remained largely uncollected despite settling their bills to the council.
Despite the snub from the councillors, Kumalo said the meeting went ahead and came up with far-reaching resolutions for the community.
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“The meeting came out with resolutions based on five broad thematic areas, namely governance and management, service delivery, housing policy framework, local government legislative alignment with the Zimbabwe Constitution and access to public interest information by citizens from public institutions,” he said.
The meeting also produced a plan of action which was adopted by all stakeholders participating in the meeting who included religious leaders, representatives from the municipality’s workers’ union, community-based organisations from political parties.
Kumalo said: “We are going to continue to apply pressure on the councillors to attend these platforms where they should meet residents and discuss pressing issues in the community.”
Chitungwiza councillors and officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.
