THE Masvingo United Residents and Ratepayers Association (Murra) has petitioned Masvingo town clerk Adolf Gusha and the city’s mayor Hubert Fidze (MDC-T) demanding to be furnished with the council salary schedule.
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They also queried why several projects being implemented by council were taking ages to complete.
In a two-paged petition, Murra demanded clarification on the salary schedule, the proposed dedicated power line and how much council was forking out daily to hire vehicles from the Central Mechanical Equipment Department (CMED) after the local authority’s entire fleet was attached by the Deputy Sherriff over a $2 million debt owed to workers in unpaid salaries.
The residents’ body alleged that council was paying $42 000 per month for vehicle hire to CMED.
“Residents feel it is better for council to buy other vehicles than hire them from CMED at such an exorbitant amount. It is not sustainable. We also demand that the legal wrangle between the workers and council be finalised so our vehicles which have been attached can be brought back,” reads part of the petition signed by Murra programmes co-ordinator Anozivaishe Muguti.
“The issue of salaries for management is and has always been an issue that we wanted clarified. They should be made public because that is ratepayers’ money. Residents demand the salary schedule for the management be made public as soon as possible.”
Muguti said some council managers were being given $900 each as housing allowances when they stayed in council houses. Murra also sought an explanation on the funds raised for a dedicated power line at the water pumping station meant to ensure that residents do not have water shortages in the event of an outage.
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“What happened to the funds we contributed from January to June 2013? For the purposes of accountability, please let us know what happened to that money and the way forward,” Muguti said.
He also cited the delay in the completion of the trunk sewer which started last year saying the trenches were now like death traps. They urged council to arrest water shortages now that the city’s main supplier Lake Mutirikwi’s water levels had improved.
They also took council to task over flooding of houses in some parts of Mucheke high-density suburb due to blocked storm drainage systems.
Another burning issue Murra raised was the construction of an alternative bridge, Chimusana, which was budgeted for in 2011, but construction had not yet started.
Masvingo city has one access bridge linking the city centre and all the high-density suburbs along the Masvingo-Beitbridge highway, leading to congestion.
Gusha could not be reached for a comment to confirm receipt of the petition, although a source at town house revealed that they had seen it.
