$36 billion budget for Hwange town

By Sharon Sibindi | Nov. 26, 2023

Council spokesperson Dumisani Nsingo described the council’s blueprint ‘as a social inclusive budget’ because it also catered for the needs of people with disabilities (PWDs) and other marginalised communities.

The Hwange Local Board has proposed a $36 billion budget for next year as it seeks funds to cushion the vulnerable in the coal mining town.

“This seeks to influence public expenditure and trigger social and economic activities by directly subsiding certain policies and programmes that are responsive to the needs of marginalised groups while reducing explicit or implicit social bias,” Nsingo said.

“Thus, the reason we decided to include special groups such as youths, women and PWDs in our budget consultation programmes."

Nsingo said PWDs sought to be included in various economic empowerment programmes.

“To this end we have reserved a quota of stalls for them at our state-of-the-art Empumalanga flea market, which is currently under construction,” he said.

“Through their body; Federation of Organisations of Disabled People in Zimbabwe, the PWDs requested Council to come up with a disability policy, which the board is considering to accede to pending the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two parties.”