INEPT councillors and National Assembly members from the opposition have led to the decay in the capital over the past 20 years and must be booted out to improve service delivery, President Mnangagwa has said.
He also indicated that the Government will give title deeds
and regularise informal settlements such as Epworth after the Ministry of
Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development finalise a
geo-mapping exercise to facilitate the process.
Addressing an oversubscribed star rally in Epworth
yesterday, where he launched ZANU PF’s national election campaign ahead of the
March 26 by-elections, President Mnangagwa urged residents to vote for ZANU PF
MPs and councillors to arrest years of deterioration in infrastructure and
service delivery.
“If you look at Harare now, which has been run by the
incompetent opposition for over 20 years, there has been poor service
delivery,” he said.
“Refuse is not being collected, sewage is flowing
everywhere and all they can chant is CCC while the sewage is flowing.
“There are potholes everywhere and corruption is so rife.
But now we can remove them from the council through the vote.”
He said the opposition cannot be trusted with leadership
positions as most officials in Harare were currently facing corruption charges
in courts.
“So when we vote for our local councillors, it’s an
opportunity to vote for our candidates and ensure that service delivery
improves. Just look at what we are doing as Central Government: We have adopted
the roads in urban centres.”
In addition to providing title deeds for Harare residents,
the President added, informal settlements are also being prioritised for
various infrastructure development programmes.
“We have decided that we should give title deeds to
residents in settlements like Epworth, Harare South and Caledonia. Treasury
allocated funds to the Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology
Development Ministry to buy equipment for a geo-spatial survey.
“We used this equipment for geo-spatial mapping in these
areas and now we have maps which can help us create modern residential areas
with roads, schools and other amenities.”
No one will be left homeless by the regularisation exercise
as those who will be affected by the proper siting of settlements will be
relocated to decent accommodation that is presently being constructed by
Government.
“Some of the roads we are going to construct will affect
houses, but those affected will not be left homeless; they will be allocated
flats somewhere else,” he said.
“Our housing minister Cde (Daniel) Garwe and his team are
already at work as we are building flats so that those who are settled on areas
where roads have to be constructed will be moved to those flats.
“We cannot displace people, no! We are not going to do
that. Minister Murwira and his Geo-Spatial team are busy determining which
people can be given title deeds. With the title deeds, it means the stand is
now formally yours and no one can take it away from you. They were saying we
should give out title deeds today, but I said we cannot do that at a rally, we
have to follow proper procedure.”
President Mnangagwa promised Epworth residents a major road
network overhaul in line with the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme.
“I am told that Domboramwari, Glenwood from Domboramwari
shopping centre to Delport road, the roads are set for rehabilitation. Also
from Overspill Quarry to parts of Delport road and Chiremba road, Sunway City
as well as Harare-Chitungwiza, the roads are among those set for
rehabilitation. I can assure you there will be results because the team is
being supervised by VP Chiwenga, and I know he will make them work until they
achieve their targets.”
The Government, he said, is pushing on all fronts to
develop the country, with the majority of his 2018 election promises having
already been fulfilled.
“In terms of water, we are constructing Kunzvi Dam here in
Harare, and in Bulawayo, which has been facing severe water shortages over the
years, we went to Nyamandlovu and drilled boreholes to extract water from an
aquifer.
“Also, we constructed a water pipeline from the aquifer to
supply Bulawayo. So we have greatly reduced the deficit there because Bulawayo
is now getting 151 megalitres per day against a demand of 155 megalitres per
day,” he said.
The construction of Gwai-Shangani Dam, which is set to be
completed by year-end, will enhance water availability in Bulawayo and
surrounding areas.
“Before, we thought such massive projects needed investment
from foreign companies, but we have proved that we can do it ourselves. We are
doing it with our local companies and we encourage you to form your companies
and work with us. As Government, we will assist you.”
President Mnangagwa also revealed that the Government will
go into a gas extraction partnership with Mozambique in Manica province.
“I was in Mozambique yesterday (Friday) where my brother
Filipe Nyusi was commissioning some trains they bought from India. We discussed
a number of areas where we could work together to build our economies. One of
those areas is gas extraction in Buzi in Manica province.”
He also denounced countries that were putting pressure on
Zimbabwe to conduct by-elections at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
There are people who were saying President Mnangagwa does
not want by-elections because he is afraid of losing,” he said.
“This was not the case because we could not hold elections
while the country was battling high Covid-19 infection rates.
“We had to protect the public because if we had mobilised
people at that time like we did today, then those events would have been
super-spreaders.
“We resisted that pressure, especially from some foreign
countries, and said if you are so eager for elections do it in your countries,
here we will only hold elections when the situation is conducive. Now that the
situation is stable, we are going to hold the by-elections.”
President Mnangagwa warned party officials implicated in
vote rigging in the just-ended primary elections, that they will face
disciplinary action.
“After primary elections, we had a lot of grievances, with
some people complaining that there was rigging in some wards and
constituencies.
“In ZANU PF, we do not want such behaviour, to those who
were involved in rigging, I am saying do not do it again because when you
joined the party you chose to follow its rules. In ZANU PF, we want peace and
unity always.”
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