The chairperson, Emilia Chakatsva, insisted that the organisation was a-political – interested only in the welfare of its members.
She told thousands of assembled residents: “We have a situation whereby there is no water supplies, refuse collection is mostly erratic, poor sewerage reticulation, roads are potholed and damaging vehicles and a threat to pedestrians as well, and city health centers are failing to service residents.
The City of Harare, the chief service provider has failed to improve service delivery which has compromised the living conditions of residents in communities. To make the situation worse, the local authority imposed an ill formulated budget which is still being contested by the HRT in the High Court.”
She said there was a sour relationship between the City of Harare, elected councillors and the residents, which stemmed from a lack of responsiveness to the needs of the residents and the ruthlessness of council in the form of issuing summons to court for non-payment of unconsumed water.
“The restoration of the prestige formerly associated with the capital city will remain a dream if elected councillors continue to underperform; dismissed councillors are not replaced and existing councillors are involved in shoddy deals in the form of misappropriation of council resources and abuse of office,” she said.
The meeting was broken up by violent Zanu (PF) youths shortly after Chakatsva had said: “Let it be known to all that violence disrupts service delivery and hinders development. If at all elections are to be held they must be in a free and fair environment and inter party violence should never characterize them.
The HRT has managed to survive to date largely due to our apolitical stance in our work and I urge you as leaders of the HRT and the membership that is here today to distance politics from our work.”
Post published in: News