Victoria Falls Councillors Accuse Minister July Moyo Of Meddling

 VICTORIA FALLS councillors have accused Local Government Minister July Moyo of interfering with the local authority’s day to day running thereby causing disharmony among the city fathers.

There was a near fallout between the mayor Somvelo Dlamini and Ward 7 councillor Prince Thuso Moyo who accused the city premier of using decisions from “kangaroo meetings” to run the authority.

Dlamini had to tell Moyo to “at least respect the office of the mayor” if at all he could not respect him as an individual and deputy mayor Patricia Mwale had to intervene.

Some councillors blamed the mayor for making decisions based on phone call instructions purportedly from minister Moyo in contrast to the dictates of local governance where every resolution should be written down.

Verbal decisions that are used to override council resolutions have reportedly caused confusion and infighting that has been rocking council.

Speaking during a full council meeting, councillors accused Moyo of stopping the municipality over the phone from selling stands.

The issue was fuelled by an announcement in the boardroom that Minister Moyo had written to council informing them about his imminent visit to the local authority to address the raging issue of budget which residents want reviewed downwards.

“Waiting will not help, I thought we were going to discuss the letter, then come up with a date if the minister is saying he is coming,” said Ward 3 councillor Lungile Nyoni.

Ward 10 councillor Nkanyiso Sibindi said: “We are councillors and we make decisions. So we should come up with a decision today and when the minister comes to tell us his side, we will tell him that we are councillors and we were elected.”

Cllr Moyo who chairs the finance committee which is charge of budget formulation interjected saying the confusion within council had escalated.

“The problem here is that we are confused by things happening. The mayor and Town Clerk are the face of council which is why when you told us that the minister is coming, we listened as your children.

“The problem which brings us confusion is that when we do things, we are told that the minister said this and that without anything written down. There is no written communication.

“You advertise stands and you hear that the minister has said over the phone that we should not sell but there won’t be any written communication.

“I have been saying this several times and now the statement that you said when we started the meeting is now contradicting what’s being suggested here that we as councillors have power to make decisions. Surely if we do that, he will come on us. What I am saying is we are now confused,” said Cllr Moyo.

He said the impression among stakeholders was that himself as chair of finance committee was against residents’ plea for review of the budget.

The mayor has been in a cold war with Town Clerk Ronnie Dube who was on Monday released from remand prison on $50 000 bail for a charge of abuse of office.

Councillors accuse mayor Dlamini of plotting against Dube.

“Tell us what we should do because you are the one who meets the minister, some of us will never meet him.

“Guide us because we are tired of kangaroo meetings and everything that is happening yet with nothing written down. We only hear there are phone calls being made.

“This is an organisation, let’s do things procedurally. We are not humiliating anyone here,” said Cllr Moyo.

The mayor hit back telling Cllr Moyo that he was off tracking.

“Let me guide you councillor I think you are getting out of the way. This is not a platform to demean or show disrespect or to humiliate each other. If you don’t respect me, respect my office, you have to respect the office of the mayor.

“All I said was that we should be seen doing something on this budget thing as soon as possible.

“The minister’s visit wont cancel our process, we are going to do our process, when he comes, he is going to address councillors, management and residents. So, he doesn’t interfere with our process,” said Dlamini.

The deputy mayor quickly intervened saying: the mayor is peaking colleagues let’s listen” and the statement cut off other councillors who had started interjecting.

Source: Victoria Falls Councillors Accuse Minister July Moyo Of Meddling (13/05/2021)

Read More:

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (30th April 2021) Town Clerk Dube suspended.

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (14th May 2021) Victoria Falls Councillors Accuse Minister July Moyo Of Meddling.

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (26th June 2021) Vic Falls Town Clerk Ronnie Dube reinstated 

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (27th June 2021) Victoria Falls townclerk reinstated.

Zimbabwe: Govt Identifies Land for New Batoka City

By Leonard Ncube

Victoria Falls Reporter

THE GOVERNMENT has identified land where a new city will be built as part of the Batoka Gorge Hydro-Electric project outside Victoria Falls, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development Engineer Gloria Magombo has said.

The coming in of Batoka City will be a major milestone and fits well with the broader Matabeleland North development, which has in the recent past become an economic epicenter in the country following designation of Victoria Falls as a Special Economic Zone, and eventual conferment of city status to the municipality.

Zimbabwe and Zambia are implementing the US$4 billion hydropower project in the gorges along Zambezi River where two 1 200MW power plants on either side of the river, a substation, transmission as well as a new settlement and road infrastructure, will be built.

Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) jointly owned by the two governments is the implementing agent and in 2019 chose General Electric and Power Corporation of China to build the power plant, about 50km downstream from Victoria Falls City.

A steering council of ministers comprising Ministries of Finance and Energy from both countries was set up to spearhead the project, which was first planned in 1992 but was delayed by an impasse over colonial era debts and community resistance.

Work had been scheduled to start in 2020 but was delayed because of the adverse effects of coronavirus.

However, public consultations on the environmental disclosure have been completed and inputs submitted to the relevant authority and work is underway to start pre-construction work for the new Batoka City, a key component of the Government's drive to steer development in Matabeleland North, particularly the Victoria Falls-Hwange-Binga corridor.

Communities around the Batoka project finally agreed to the project after extensive consultation by ZRA and both governments. About 4 000 direct plus 6 000 indirect jobs are set to be created.

Eng Magombo said the land has been secured and authorities from Hwange Rural District Council, Zimbabwe Power Company and Ministry of Local Government and Public Works are on the ground making preparatory work.

She, however, could not reveal the exact location of the land and its size.

"There is a lot of work that is being done in terms of the environmental disclosure after the finalization of the Environmental Impact Assessment," she said. "Consultations were done during the Covid-19 lockdown period and all the input from various stakeholders has been received.

"But there is also the issue of land for the project as you are aware last year Zimbabwe did approve the cession of the land but the land is now available.

"ZPC together with Hwange RDC and Local Government Ministry are looking at coming up with a plan in terms of how the whole city will then be planned and there is a lot of work, which is already going on into that part of the programme," said Eng Magombo.

She said over and above other developments, there has been appointment of various advisers with the African Legal Support providing some of the advice on evaluation of documents, which have been submitted by the contractor.

The two governments have also appointed a technical advisor in an effort to ensure that there are no grey areas.

"There is a lot of work going on in terms of finalizing preparation and structuring of the project, which is being done between ZRA as the main coordinator and implementing agent of both governments and steering committee comprising both ministries of energy and finance and we believe that in the next quarter we will be announcing when the ground-breaking and other milestones will be achieved," she said.

Batoka Dam wall will be 175m high after it was reduced as a result of concerns by tour operators particularly rafting companies in Victoria Falls that water backflow would hurt their operations.

The power plant is expected to take about five years to complete but electricity generation should start in the third year.

The Second Republic is focused on driving robust economic transformation of the province through unlocking its vast investment potential so that it contributes more to the mainstream economy.

Several projects, which had been in limbo have been reactivated and in various stages of completion. Among these are the giant Gwayi-Shangani Dam, Bulawayo Kraal Irrigation Scheme, Hwange Power Station' units 7 and 8 expansion, Lupane Provincial Hospital and Elitsheni Government Complex.

The Second Republic has also moved swiftly to operationalize the Victoria Falls SEZ and established the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange, capping the city as a financial and tourism hub of Zimbabwe.

The establishment of Batoka City, together with the planned Masue City near Victoria Falls will buttress the combined development of Matabeleland North as a key component for transforming Zimbabwe into an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

Read the original article on The Herald. (07/05/21)