Bulawayo Mayor David Coltart has called on the eight newly sworn-in councillors to prioritize improving service delivery in the city and work without partisan biases.
The councillors who were sworn in are from ward 1 Josiah Mutangi, ward 6 Nkosinathi Hove Mpofu, ward 9 Donaldson Mabutho, ward 18 Felix Takunda Madzana, ward 20 Sandra Sibindi, ward 21 Tinevimbo Maphosa, ward 22 Thobeka Mmeli Moya, and ward 24 councillor Tavengwa Zidya.
Speaking after the swearing-in ceremony, on Thursday, Coltart acknowledged the disruptions caused by the by-election process in the running of the local authority.
He emphasised a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption within the council and urged non-partisanship, stating that critical issues like water supply affect all citizens, regardless of political affiliation.
“To the new councillors that have not worked with me before, I say two things must guide us, the first is that we must together adopt a zero-tolerance policy to corruption, that is the policy of this council. If any councillor or member of council is found to be engaged in corruption, they will be zero tolerance to corruption approach adopted to that,” said Coltart.
“Secondly, this council must be marked by non-partisanship, we have two parties which have been elected today but both those parties represent in their wards all the citizens of our great city irrespective of how they were voted. We have these major issue, the reason I am saying this today is because we have serious issues facing our city, water is neither ZANU PF nor CCC in colour, it is needed by everyone.”
Coltart pleaded with the ZANU-PF councillors to speak to their superiors to urgently address the water crisis in the city.
“It is only through a collective approach that we can address these issues and I speak specifically to the ZANU PF councillors who have been elected today, this has to be approached along partisan line and quite frankly we need your systems to speak to your superiors for them to listen to the long partisan issues relating to water which we all have to address urgently. So, councillors, I look forward to working with you all in a non-partisan way, in a way that serves the best interest of all the people of this city” he said.
