KWEKWE councillors refused to be railroaded, into adopting the council’s 2016 budget after it was tabled during a full council meeting on Wednesday last week without taking into account input from the budget consultative meetings.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
The councillors resolved they will only consider the $30,5 million budget after residents views are incorporated.
Councillor Kandros Lawe moved a motion that council should dispense a prepaid water tender deal, which has rocked the city over the past two months. Lawe said the budget expenditure should be brought and explained to councillors by each departmental head and that reports of consultations on the budget should be considered.
Councillor Morris Chinwada said there was a tendency of conducting window-dressing consultation processes when management had crafted its own budget before the consultations.
He also noted that there was resistance by management to dispense with the prepaid water meter tender, by not providing documents requested by councillors and seconded Lawe’s motion.
“We consulted people and they want their views captured and this is our stand point. Let’s respect the views of our people. The issue of water meters has been outstanding for a long time and its beginning to tarnish the image of the city, so it has to be dealt with,” Chinwada said, while addressing a ward meeting.
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Deputy mayor, Aaron Sithole, confirmed that councillors, who set during a special council meeting, refused to adopt the budget.
“The budget has not been adopted because councillors have raised several issues, which will now be dealt with so that the budget process will move forward. We are now going to have a special workshop to deal with the issues raised during the consultations and the prepaid water meter issue will also be looked into,” he said.
