The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
BULAWAYO councillors last week got down to business following the election of the mayor and deputy on Monday, visiting a number of major council facilities to get an appreciation of the current state of service delivery.
Ward four Clr, David Coltart was elected mayor while, Clr Donaldson Mabuto will serve as his deputy.
On Wednesday, councillors were put into standing committees with chairpersons and deputy chairpersons of the committees also elected.
According to council sources, Clr Mpumelelo Moyo (ward 26) chairs the finance committee, deputised by Clr Dumisani Nkomo (ward five), town lands and planning, chairman; Clr Dumisani Netha (ward 14), deputy; Clr Mxolisi Mahlangu (ward three) while the environmental management and engineering services committee is chaired by Clr Royini Sekete (ward 29), deputised by Clr Nkosinathi Hove Mpofu (ward six).
The future water supplies and water action committee is chaired by Clr Edwin Ndlovu (ward eight), Clr Ntombizodwa Khumalo (ward 23) chairs the health, housing and education committee deputised by Clr Sikhululekile Moyo (ward 17) while the audit committee will be chaired by Clr Aleck Ndlovu (ward 25) who will be deputised by Clr Melissa Mabesa who was elected under the proportional representation quota.
Confirming the allocation of the committees, the mayor, Clr Coltart said this was done so that councillors could get down to business immediately.
Clr Donaldson Mabuto
“We concluded the issue of allocating councillors with their committees and they will start sitting as committees as soon as possible, realising the amount of work that is required within the local authority, therefore there is no time to rest,” said Clr Coltart.
The mayor also revealed that as councillors they had spent the week going around various council amenities to get an appraisal from council officials on the progress that was being done and what was lagging behind.
Some of the areas visited by the councillors include the city’s water works, Luveve road rehabilitation, Egodini bus terminus and city’s sewer reticulation sites.
On Friday the councillors had a briefing with council management where they were taken through the city’s strategic plan, procurement issues, water management, Egodini redevelopment, waste water management, informal trading, parking management system and the state of the city’s road network.
“The purpose for the tour was for us to understand the challenges that are being faced by Bulawayo, once we understand these problems and their gravity we now have to priotise, looking at what our finance department has in our coffers.
“We also found out that some projects are facing challenges that are legal in nature, like being locked in arbitration, we are looking at those to see how we can then expedite them so that we ensure that the people of Bulawayo are not held at ransom,” said Clr Coltart.
Delivering his first speech after being elected as mayor, Clr Coltart said as one of the first moves they will be holding town hall meetings with various stakeholders so as get their views on key service delivery matters affecting the city.
“Our priority must be to clean up Bulawayo, I will be calling a town hall meeting as soon as possible to pull in the leaders of our society; business leaders, faith leaders, civic organisation leaders, so that we can work out, within the context of our resources, how we can do this.
“We cannot be proud of our city if we allow this filth to continue and this has to be our immediate priority. The second priority is a review of all historical contracts, if we find that those contracts were not properly entered into and with the advice of the lawyers, if there can be a variation or can be cancelled in the best interest of Bulawayo, they will be cancelled,” said Clr Coltart.
