Valued residents and stakeholders, I am humbled by your trust and confidence in me to lead this Council and people of Masvingo as the Mayor. It is with great humility that I thank my colleague Councillors for their continued support in execution of my duties as the Mayor of the City of Masvingo. I was elected in 2018 as a member of Council to serve the residents of Mavingo and latter elected as the Mayor to lead the Council. I knew the task was very big and expectations were very high to deliver the promised prosperity to the residents of Masvingo.

As we publicly took on the responsibility in 2018, we collectively did so with a resolve to inspire our residents irrespective of their tribe, political or religious affiliations with desire to look into the future with hope. We were equally cognizant that their demands for total commitment and hard work from us, as their elected leaders was genuine, as this would translate into positive changes to their social standing. Our leadership agenda was and is still therefore driven by a total commitment to address issues of service delivery and improve the quality of life of our residents by ensuring provision of clean water to each household, as well as sanitation services. 

I knew the road ahead of us was unpredictable and not easy, but I had confidence in the Lord that if we build Masvingo with him all things were possible.  However, the productivity of each and every staff member is of essence to achieve our set targets based on the Council Strategic Plan.

Our role as Councillors is to make policies, take decisions, promote and market Masvingo to attract potential investors. Administrators’ duty is to ensure effective and efficient administration at all levels including management of staff. We shall not tolerate any poor performance at the expense of service delivery to our residents and ratepayers.

We have a vision to turn Masvingo into an Industrialised World Class Metropolitan City by 2030 by turning it into an industrial and tourism hub. It is against this background that we have set priorities and projects for 2022. Which are not in particular order as follows;

1. Completion of Runyararo North West Clinic funded by Devolution Funds, which is now functional and offering all clinical services including mental health.
2. Rujeko Secondary School, 3rd and 4th block at roof level. Targeting to complete by the 31st of December 2022 in preparation for 2023 Form One classes at a total cost of RTGs 8 300 217.40.
3. Cambria Landfill now at 98% completion awaiting commissioning, at a total cost of RTGs 45 672 577.66.
4. Mucheke Trunk Sewer Line now at 78% completion, at a total cost of RTGs 26 992 053.30 funded by Devolution Funds.
5. Kernen Park, at a total cost of RTGs 2 451 520.84.
6. Servicing of Pangolin and Runyararo residential stands at a total cost of 2 778 569.61.
7. Servicing of Oliver Street commercial stands, at a total cost of RTGs 16 153 463. 61.
8. Repair of tower lights through a Street Lighting Levy
9. Road rehabilitation projects funded under ERRP2.

I am happy to announce that the servicing of commercial land for Central Business District extension will commence 2023

Provision of clean potable water to all residents, industry, CBD, institutions, Hospitals among others remains our priority.

Setting out targets as per our Strategic Plan which we recently reviewed in November 2022 will form the basis for programs and projects to be implemented from 2023 to 2025. The Strategic Plans have provision for monitoring and evaluating the performance of Council.

What I just mention will require our collective and aggressive lobby to address hazels facing these priority areas. I will be disappointed to note that projects and programs are delayed because of financial challenges caused by bad debtors. We should own our Council and build our beautiful City to attract potential investors.

We can`t pride ourselves to be achieving so much while our young people don`t have recreation facilities. We can`t rest while our people are unemployed. Let us all work together in one spirit by servicing our bills to turn our town to what we want, an industrial and tourism hub.

It is our duty as second tier of Government to deliver quality and affordable services to the residents of Masvingo. Investor-friendly processes and procedures are now in place eliminating red tape. We have improved the administrative systems so as to promote investment in the City.

Some systems and mechanisms which were identified during Strategic Plan Review exercise last month are to be put in motion to reduce current outstanding debt of ZWL$ 2.3 Billion by residents and ratepayers to council with immediate effect. There are some residents, businesses and churches who religiously honour their bills consistently but they are denied quality service delivery because of defaulters.

Irrespective of what I have mentioned above as successes or challenges, we shall as residents of Masvingo collectively maintain our City in good state. It is imperative that we burry our differences, focus on the same direction, use our energy and diversity to build our City for current and future generations with pride.

Conclusion

I want to end with usual quote by Mahatma Gandhi as adopted by our Town Clerk, Eng. E. Mukaratirwa for team prosperity

 “Be the change that you wish to see in the world or Masvingo”

Finally, I would like to congratulate City of Masvingo for winning the Best Local Authority at the Zimbabwe CEO’s Network Awards in Harare in March 2022.

I wish you all a merry festive season, productive and very successful year 2023 ahead.

I thank you!