THE Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) has accused city councillors of misconduct, saying some of them are responsible for fanning factionalism, which has affected service delivery in the city.
In a letter addressed to Bulawayo Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube, BPRA noted that the behaviour of the councillors had become toxic resulting in residents losing confidence in the city fathers.
“As ratepayers we are perturbed by such conduct and we feel there is an urgent need for council to engage residents and take strides to address this emergency in the interest of the welfare of the city.
“Administratively, councillors have failed us as residents and ratepayers as evidenced by their personalisation politics,” said BPRA.
The residents association said councillors were servants of the rate payers and were mandated to fulfil their duties.
“We would like to take this opportunity to remind councillors that they are representatives of the residents and owe their primary loyalty to those who voted for them,” read the letter.
Mr Dube confirmed receipt of the letter but said there was no misconduct among councillors.
“There are no councillors that boycotted a meeting. It was an issue of miscommunication. It was a budget meeting and there is nothing to say councillors don’t want their jobs anymore. Councillors were alerted late about the agenda of the meeting. There was a workshop and they were committed to attending that,” said Mr Dube in reference to a report where councillors reportedly skipped crucial meeting in recent weeks.
He said he was yet to respond to the letter as he was in Harare but had tasked someone within the council to draft a response.
“I will respond to the letter by Monday. Then there is this issue of councillors walking out of a meeting. I am not aware of that as I was not there. I cannot comment on that. This is just something that has been blown out of proportion,” said Mr Dube.
There have been a number of fights among Bulawayo councillors which residents feel are now affecting service delivery.