BEITBRIDGE residents have questioned the priority list of their local authority on roads after it emerged that streets leading to points where some council employees had interests were receiving attention first.
BY REX MPHISA
This came out during a 2019 budget proposal of the municipality where residents said places of common interest among residents should come first.
Beitbridge mayor, Morgen Ncube, said his council would attend to the people’s concerns but hastened to pass the blame to previous councils.
“We have noticed the trend that roads leading to investments of certain officials get attention but that was the work of councils that came before us. We plan to be guided by the interests of the people in how we prioritise services,” he said.
“How we work must be people-driven and that is what will be standard of our term.”
Residents complained that pioneer roads in Dulivhadzimo and those leading to schools, clinics and other establishments of importance were being sidelined.
“Roads to schools where there is a lot of traffic are not being prioritised yet we have roads that are of little importance getting attention,” a resident asked during the draft budget meeting attended by residents.
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The residents ire was directed at senior council employee Douglas Siphuma, who, however, said the roads he proposed were the ones “approved” by Zinara but failed to explain why the approved roads passed through his places of interest.
“We are also questioning why certain roads have not been completed and yet new projects are being proposed. When is council going to finish Hagelthorn Road whose surfacing stopped abruptly?” another resident asked.
Most new suburbs, said one of the residents, did not have any graded roads and it seemed normal for the local authority that residents created makeshift roads.
“We want to know what our engineering section is doing apart from working on the road passing through that swimming pool belonging to one of them,” a resident Andrew Sibanda said.
Residents also asked for the speedy installation of water and sewer systems for close to 6 000 houses in Dulivhadzimo North West, where the council was already collecting rates.
Ncube said as policy makers, his council would take stock of work done and also evaluate quality of work delivered for possible work based appraisals.
