Cowdray Park Constituency Member of Parliament Pashor Sibanda has revealed that the constituency is going to combine the Constituency Development Funds (CDF) and ward retention funds to drive meaningful development.
During a stakeholder’s interface meeting in Ward 6 on Saturday, residents’ representatives highlighted major issues that need development such as a sewer system, road infrastructure improvement, and water connection.
“We had a stakeholder meeting in Ward 6 where we agreed that we will work together in Ward 6. As you know, our ward has no sewerage system, some areas have no water, garbage was not collected in some areas, sewerage burst, these are the issues that residents want me to speak about in council chambers,” said Clr Mpofu.
He said there is excitement among residents’ representatives as they are eager to see development, “which as a councillor I am not going to disappoint in that.”
Meanwhile, Sibanda said his approach to Cowdray Park is ward based.
“We do not want to divorce the MP from the councillor or the MP from the ward, my approach to Cowdray Park is ward based. The issue of having a councillor there and an MP there is over because Cowdray Park is unique, the issues we were discussing here you can’t find them in Magwegwe, Makokoba, Nkulumane but they are only unique to Cowdray Park,” he said.
“For example, councillors are going to get ward retention funds let’s say $200 and I will also get CDF let’s say $150, instead of MP using the CDF and the councillor using the ward retention, what about we combine and seat down and decide how we will utilize these funds for the development of Cowdray Park, thus the approach I wish we could use.”
He said they want to establish a Constituency Coordinating Committee which will come from the residents comprising of community groups, residents’ representatives, residents’ associations, civil society, churches, young people, and people with disabilities.
“No one is wearing yellow, green, red or whatsoever jacket but we are now all wearing Cowdray Park Jacket. At no point should we see the councilor or the MP pulling in a different direction with different people and so forth because we need to ensure that we develop Cowdray Park, we can only do that if we are working together, we might not agree as people have different opinions, we might not agree because of different experiences and so forth but in our differences that’s where we come up with ideas, and solutions because we are different people,’ said Sibanda.
He said after establishing the team, they will sit down again and decide the priority projects for Ward 6, “so that it becomes our thing and whatever comes to Cowdray Park benefits the people.”
“We work with an open-door policy, as long as it is the issue of Cowdray Park we will wake up and go and work. When I got into parliament the first thing that I asked was the issue of Constituency offices and I am glad that for the first time we are going to have constituency offices,” said Sibanda.
