Plumtree residents poised for budget consultative meetings
Nkosi Sibanda
Residents of Plumtree cannot wait to register their concerns with the newly-elected Plumtree Town councillors in budget consultative meetings set to commence today.
Ward 1 kick-starts the budget consultative meetings at 16:00 this afternoon. Ward 2 residents will have their opportunity tomorrow and the meetings will take place everyday, with each day dedicated to the 6 wards.
After consulting ward residents, the council will go on to consult other stakeholders including the business community, women and youth, persons with disability, government departments and informal traders.
The current sky rocketing rates and unfinished project have residents crying foul and will be high on the list of issues that residents will be seeking answers on. Some issues date back to the previous council.
“Some projects which the council had promised to complete are still pending. For instance, the Mathendele sewer project has not been completed over the years,” said a resident, Augustine Phiri.
Another resident of ward 2, Rejoice Nkomo said residents need answers on pending matters from the local authority before it moves on to the current budget.
“As residents we need answers from the local authority before moving to the current budget. In Mathendele some parts hardly have running water but they have been charged high rates at the end of the month. The council should prioritise such cases,” said Nkomo.
“There are still no public toilets in Plumtree despite our concerted efforts to bring this to the attention of council in previos budget consultations. We also do not have libraries in Plumtree and the Local Authority should take note of that,” added a resident, Nkazimulo Ndlovu.
Addressing his first ever ward meeting, newly-elected ward 1 councillor, Godfrey Ngwenya told residents that the local authority will solve the issue of high rates. As for other challenges, he said residents will get answers from during the budget consultations meeting.
