LOCAL Government minister Daniel Garwe must take the issue up where residents of Harare are increasingly becoming more discontented with city council officials who continue to exhibit unethical management behaviour.
Harare City Council (HCC) never ceases to amaze as complaints continue to be made against city authorities by residents.
The complaints range from issues to do with service delivery, corruption, discourteous treatment by municipal police, rude treatment by parking agents, among other issues.
Residents’ grievances have often fallen on deaf ears.
It seems responsible authorities are growing thick skin by the day.
The commission of inquiry looking into the affairs of the city since 2017 is leaving no stone unturned as it digs deeper into the operations of the local authority.
Imagine the city authorities revealing that at least US$250 million was unaccounted for in the last six years.
Where are our law enforcement agents when such claims are being made?
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Who stole a quarter of a billion dollars, an amount good enough to feed the whole country?
If we think that is normal, then all of us should have our brains examined by both a neurologist and a psychiatrist.
The country has gone to the dogs, with corruption rearing its ugly head in each and every department of council.
To begin with, service delivery has collapsed totally, with heaps of garbage having become a common sight in the city.
Garbage is a natural habitat for rodents, while water bodies are breeding places for mosquitoes, making it a disaster for disease outbreaks like cholera, typhoid, dysentery, malaria and even bilharzia in the rainy season.
Water and sanitation are now rare commodities and the problems are perennial with no solution in sight despite changes in leadership.
We have witnessed many mayors, town clerks, directors who enjoy huge perks at the helm of council but with nothing to offer residents.
Some of them have been implicated in corruption, abuse of office, maladministration, but they remain in office, aggravating the already miserable situation.
Until when are we going to continue watching our city sink at supersonic speed while we stand akimbo?
Laying the blame on government alone is utter tomfoolery given that councillors and the mayor are making shocking management decisions, including parcelling out uninhabitable land to prospective home seekers.
Council has at least 12 running clinics which have been suffering from understaffing for a long time.
Motivation is very low, amid a shortage of basic drugs, deplorable conditions of service and tools of trade in a sorry state.
In this day and age, there is no healthcare institution that should run without power back-up considering that some areas are going for over 12 hours without electricity.
Power outages have a direct effect on drug storage, patient management, service efficiency and effectiveness, with research done in other countries showing there is increased patient mortality in areas that experience frequent power challenges.
If the leakage and wasting of resources reported at council is stopped, council health institutions can offer better health services and what is needed is administrative and political will to capacitate the clinics.
Council employees are languishing in poverty as a result of delayed salaries, medical aid cards that are spurned by many medical practitioners in the country because of non-payment by the Harare Municipal Medical Aid Society.
There are reports of embezzlement of funds at the medical aid society and one wonders why corruption is allowed to fester yet the perpetrators are known.
Imagine a whole mayor, Jacob Mafume, having the temerity to lie about his residential address to commissioners.
Does this man deserve to be in office?
Why should the city continue to be run by managers implicated in the rot blighting the local authority?
The ill-treatment of vendors touched my heart one day when many of them, mostly women, were shoved into a huge lorry with their wares being randomly thrown into the back of the vehicle.
The iniquitous behaviour of council security officers is unpardonable.
Vendors are trying to earn a living by selling their commodities.
We understand they may be selling at undesignated places, but confiscating and destroying their goods is extremely inconsiderate.
It is common knowledge that some council security officers take confiscated wares home to their families.
Why does the country's leadership allow such barbarous acts to pile misery on the suffering citizens?
It is time the Local Government ministry intervened without further delay.
It is undeniable that our esteemed city has been run down by uncaring leaders who do not deserve another day in office.
The commission is better placed to deal with the issues bedevilling the local authority.
Time for action is now, maybe we can salvage something from the plunder.
