By Rex Mphisa
BEITBRIDGE town councillors have asked their executive wing why it has taken long to secure prepaid water meters and ensure residents have a seamless supply of water.
“Almost everyday residents are asking me when the pre-paid water meters will be availed so they can have uninterrupted water supply. They want prepaid meters and why are we failing to supply them? Why has this tender moved from the council that was there before us to us? We have been on this for so many sittings and nothing is happening,” Ward 2 Councillor Portia Shumba asked during Wednesday’s full council meeting.
“Why are we going to spend years debating on this without results? This is humiliating us before the residents and we have nothing to feed back. It is not far on tye residents,” she said.
Beitbridge has had perennial water problems stemming from a huge debt the local authority had with the Zimbabwe National Water Authority.
At one time Zinwa completely cut supplies to the border town but was forced to reverse its decision when authorities running the border threatened to reduce operating hours by half which forced Zinwa to rethink.
But soon after Zinwa installed a bulk prepaid water meter which affects all residents disregarding who owed what even affecting paid up clients.
Ward 5 Councillor Ngorima asked why it has taken the municipality so many moths to buy 10 pipes that would allow a section of Dulivhadzimu called “Ma8” with water.
“We do not know what to tell residents, why would it take this long,” asked Ngorima.
Acting town clerk Sathulana Moyo said some complications on the prepaid water meters arose when the supplier was required to supply a vehicle before he referred the issue to the Municipality procurement officer one Mkandla.
“We are waiting for response from the Procurement Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) since October last year. This tender has different stages we have to refer back to them and ws can only wait for their directions,” he said.
It has however been established the Municipality of Beitbridge has not paid a company that was ferrying its mail to PRAZ.
Investigations by Ziyah News Network established that MoB simply ignored the company that carried its mail owed slightly over a thousand ZiG.
“I contacted them many times until they no longer responded to my calls and I stopped carrying their mail,” said an employee of the mail company.
An official from MoB howevee said they do not owe anyone of such paltry amounts.