Ward 23 residents in Bulawayo have implored their new councillor, Ntombizodwa Khumalo, to exercise fairness when picking residents who will benefit through Community Working Groups (CWG).
These sentiments come after previous councillors were accused of hiring people they knew for litter or paper picking and other menial work in the city’s wards, prompting outrage and suspicions of nepotism in the communities.
Speaking to CITE in an interview about residents’ expectations from the recently elected community leaders, Acting Chairperson for Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) in the ward, Irene Ndlovu said they are hoping their new councillor will not be partisan when she picks people for the project.
“We understand that the community working group projects were initially introduced to benefit women and the elderly who are struggling to make ends meet,” Ndlovu said.
“However, we also have youths in the community who are struggling to get jobs, we cannot turn a blind eye on them.
The BRPA official suggested that under the community working group, the cleaning component could be assigned to women and the elderly while the digging component can be assigned to youth.
“Since the community project has two parts to it, one involves picking papers to clean the environment and the other is on digging trenches, we would like to suggest that the cleaning part be given to women and the elderly then the digging jobs be given to the youths because they are more energetic,” Ndlovu said.
Ndlovu said as residents, they are worried about the Ward Retention Funds because in the previous term they did not see how the funds were utilized.
“The issue of Ward Retention Fund is vital,” she said.
“We had told our previous councilor that we wanted that money to construct a trench. We have a perennial stream here that collects garbage and when there are rains it collects water. It is a danger to both elders and the children. We want a trench that will clearly demarcate it.
“We also would like to use the remainder of the funds to help the elderly with settling their council bills. The rates are quite high of late. The council once promised that the elderly would be allowed to pay half, but they are still paying full amounts. We therefore had suggested that once the trench is constructed, we will use the remaining funds to pay for the elderly. We really hope that the new councilor will meet the residents’ expectations.”
