SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
An image of God the Father by Julius Schnorr, 1860. Mutare City Council is asking God to intervene with service delivery
By Nomalanga Moyo SW Radio Africa 13 June 2014
The Mutare City Council held a prayer meeting on Wednesday when the mayor and residents asked God to solve their problems, according to media reports.
The local authority is failing to deliver services to its residents due to financial problems which observers attribute to corruption and mismanagement.
These include erratic water supply, potholed roads, street and traffic lights not working.
Most municipal workers have gone for close to a year without receiving their wages while some have lost their jobs, adding to an already high unemployment rate in the city.
During the event Mayor Tatenda Nhamarare told those present that the prevailing situation would only be ‘saved’ by God alone, the NewsDay reported on Friday.
“We expect that after prayer, our challenges will be a thing of the past.”
However nothing had changed by Friday, according to Mutare resident Samuel Sithole who attended the prayer meeting.
Sithole said the prayer meeting was an acknowledgement by the local authority that “they had run out of ideas”.
Asked why residents were not exploring other measures of helping themselves, such as filling up potholes, Sithole said that more than just human resources is needed to do that. “We would need expertise and other resources.
Former Mutare mayor Brian James said while divine intervention may be needed to change the attitudes of the players within council, it wasn’t all the city needs.
“My suggestion is for the mayor and his team to consult residents and to be more open and transparent about what they are doing with the revenue they collect,” James said.
“We continue to hear council management saying they do not have any money and we want to know why this is so. We also want to know what they use the money have for,” James added.