TOP military officers yesterday quizzed Harare mayor Bernard Manyenyeni and his directors at Town House over poor service delivery issues, corruption and alleged politicisation of the relocation of vendors.
BY MOSES MATENGA
Led by Air Commodore Brian Chikonzo, the group currently studying at the Zimbabwe Defence College and comprising officers from the Zimbabwe National Army, airforce, police and other security establishments, took council to task over several issues during a discussion at Town House.
“You are on record questioning the qualities of your councillors. What strategies have you put in place to address that?” asked one army officer.
Manyenyeni jokingly said given the outcry created after his initial comments on the matter, he would need the whole army to protect him on the issue.
“My point was, we are the second largest economy after the government and we deal with engineering issues, legal matters and highly specialised matters and I am of the view that we should have the capacity to deal with all these matters,” he said.
“I have no apology in that suggestion, it is a fair expectation. However, we had issues being twisted and turned, but this was all I was saying.”
Another officer quizzed council on whether the prepaid water meter project would not deprive the people of their basic human rights. Another soldier questioned why council was risking people’s health by maintaining the Pomona dumpsite close to the army barracks and residential areas.
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“Pomona is a security and health risk because there is Pomona Barracks and residential areas, any plans to move it?” asked the army officer.
Council said it was considering moving the dumpsite to Mt Hampden, but the area was too close to Charles Prince Airport.
The army officers were not satisfied and objected saying: “It has taken more than 10 years to address the issue, what is the problem?”
Others questioned why the vendors issue had been politicised, but Manyenyeni said although he was mayor on an MDC-T ticket, his brief was to “fly above politics and be a people’s and not a political party mayor”.
The army group comprised of senior officers from China, Kenya, South Africa, Namibia and several other countries.
They included colonels, senior assistant commissioners, brigadier generals and captains among others.
In his opening remarks, Chikonzo said the course was meant to train officers and civilians in government on the art of national security since some of them would be deployed into the public sector.
“Before you defend your country, you have to know what you are defending. When we talk of hunger, poverty and disasters, anything that affects the security of an individual is our concern,” Chikonzo said.
The group later toured Morton Jaffray Waterworks.
