By Chantelle Muzanenhamo
BEITBRIDGE Mayor Peter Pirato Mafuta has warned the Municipality of Beitbridge’s Engineering Department to put council business ahead of personal differences, saying internal conflicts were affecting service delivery.
Speaking during Monday’s full council meeting, Mafuta said the department was underperforming and needed to improve its execution of council resolutions.
“The Engineering Department is not performing well. Most of the problems we are facing are coming from that department,” he said.
Mafuta urged employees to focus on their responsibilities and stop allowing personal disputes to interfere with their work.
“They should not bring personal fights to work. They must choose council over fights and focus on serving the residents of Beitbridge,” he said.
The mayor’s remarks came after Councillor Takavingeni Mahachi raised concerns over the slow implementation of council projects and resolutions.
Mahachi said council frequently identified problems and agreed on solutions, but many of the resolutions were not accompanied by clear deadlines, resulting in projects stalling for months.
Pirato’s remarks come soon after the suspension of a junior engineer accused “stealing” council pipes, a charge police failed to accept.
But despite that the engineer was arrested at court and thrown inside which town clerk Loud Ramakgapola distanced his office from.
Another case was defiance of a ministerial instruction to solve the flooding at Municipality hostels by completing a drain from the hospital prematurely ending near the green vegetable market near the old bus rank.
On January 19 this year Matabeleland South Minister of Provincial Affairs and Devolution Albert Nguluvhe visited the site and insructed MoB to solve the problem.
To date nothing has been done.
At the moment there is talk some officials are resisting the prepaid water meters and canvassing for support from other forums in defiance of a council resolution.
Recently, at the residents expense, MoB outsourced engineers to supervise works at its proposed new CBD.
“Everything from roads, sewer, water distribution and street lighting is engineering work which is at a standstill,” said a Beitbridge resident.
“All we know is their strength in destroying buildings and late implementation of recommendations.”