Ward 28 Residents in Bulawayo have accused Councillor Kidwell Mujuru of failing to engage them since his election into office in May.
Mujuru romped to victory in the May by-elections which were held to replace former Councillor Hapson Ncube who passed on last year.
He became the only Zanu PF councillor in a councill largely dominated by MDC councillors.
In an interview with CITE, residents said Mujuru is yet engage them since his electoral victory.
“As we are experiencing this water crisis, we do not know what our councillor is planning, there is no communication between him and us the residents,” Sakhile Ndlovu a resident said.
“The reason why we had prioritised water was because we know that this is one of the growing suburbs in the City but we only have two functional boreholes catering for thousands of people in this area,” she said.
She said there was need for the councillor to engage residents when it comes to service delivery issues.
Meanwhile, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association Committee Member Willias Dube said the suburb had a number of problems that councillor has to address.
“What I can say is that the councillor has only called a meeting with stakeholders, we told him that we want good service delivery in our community, but he has since not held a residents meeting.
“As a new councillor we do not know what his plans are but we have roads from housing office to Garikai Hlalani Kuhle residence which have been in a bad state since the expansion of the suburb began,” said Dube.
Dube added that the councillor has to fulfil the needs of the people.
“A councillor is a leader and us as the residents we have to tell him what we want so that he may know what needs to be done in the community because he can not do it on his own,” Dube said.
“As it is we have water crisis, we do not even know whether the water situation is affecting the whole of Bulawayo or Zimbabwe as a whole. We do not even know whether to contact him regarding the bowser but we do not want a situation where we now have cholera related issues,” he said.
However, when contacted for a comment Councillor Mujuru said there were issues that led to the delay of the residents’ interface meeting.
“I am going to engage residents in a meeting very soon since there were other issues such as the water crisis, electricity issues which are some of the issues affecting people and it might lead to a low turn out,” Cllr Mujuru said.
He said his first priority when he came to power was the state of roads in the community.
“When I came into office my priority was the road situation in Cowdray Park, I have since managed to work on a 14km road now in the community which is the road from Garikai stands.
“I am now trying to engage constructors on the issue of constructing a bridge from new stands to the old ones since we are approaching the rainy season, there are no schools in new stands so school children use that bridge when going to school in the old stands,” he said.
Councillor Mujuru said the issue of boreholes is affected by the absence of sewer system in the new stands.
“People in the new stands use the Blair toilet system, so we can not drill boreholes in such a community because water will be contaminated.
He said he will soon engage residents on service delivery issues at a meeting soon to be held.
