The move follows recent revelations at Harare city council that salaries and allowances for town clerk Tendai Mahachi and his team of managers have gobbled up more than half a million dollars a month at a time of appalling service delivery.
CHIPRA director Admire Zaya confirmed the development and said the request had been handed over and the organisation was expecting a response within seven days.
Said Zaya: “We are demanding that Chitungwiza town council provides information on the ratio of spending on administrative costs against the local authority’s spending on service delivery.”
He said CHIPRA, in its letter to the city fathers, demanded to know whether or not residents’ money was looted in the form of obscene salaries and allowances to appointed commissions and town clerks.
“We stand in solidarity with the people of Harare in their fight against organised looting and abuse of council funds and we want to do a post mortem of Chitungwiza as a way of doing away with the rot that has prevailed in most local authorities,” said Zaya.
He accused officials at the council of fraud, abuse of council funds and engaging in shoddy land deals, which had led to residents losing their homes to demolition.
“The rot involved former councillors, parliamentarians, town council officials and government ministers,” he said, adding that failure by the council to reveal the salary schedule within seven days would result in protests by the residents.
“Residents will march to town house if they do not honour our request,” said Zaya, revealing that Chitungwiza residents had secured a high court interim reprieve stopping house demolitions in Chitungwiza until February 27.
“This is a temporary measure, as we seek to pursue the matter further and fight for the demolitions to be stopped completely,” he said.
Zaya said his organisation was talking to stakeholders to find a way forward to ensure that residents’ rights were protected.
Post published in: News