BY SIBONGINKOSI MAPHOSA
BULAWAYO Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) has raised concern over alleged misconduct by councillors some of whom reportedly walked out of a full council meeting recently.
In a letter dated September 19 addressed to the Bulawayo town clerk Christopher Dube, BPRA alleged that factionalism has become so toxic that it is impeding development and service delivery.
“As ratepayers we are perturbed by such conduct and we feel there is urgent need for council to engage residents and take strides to address this emergency in the interest of the welfare of the city. Administratively, councillors have failed us as residents and ratepayers as evidenced by their personalisation politics,” the letter stated.
BPRA reminded councillors that they were servants of the residents and should fulfil their mandate.“We would like to take this opportunity to remind councillors that they are representatives of the residents and owe their primary loyalty to those who voted for them,” the letter read.Dube confirmed receiving the letter.
“There is no one boycotting the meetings, it was an issue of miscommunication. Councillors were alerted late about the agenda of the meeting and most of them had already committed themselves to a workshop that was running at the time, hence the poor attendance. I am yet to respond to the letter from BPRA and explain to them,” Dube said.
He could not be drawn to comment on the issue of councillors walking out of the meeting.
“Well, I cannot talk about that because when they are alleged to have done so I was not there. I had taken a two-week breather,” Dube said.
