…Reveals that 2025 Devolution fund allocation has not been disbursed

Ngoni Dapira

IN what will be viewed as historic and pacesetting, the City of Mutare has initiated door to door budget consultations for the 2026 budget proposal following years of poor turnout for budget consultations.

Year in-Year out the apathy to attend budget consultations by residents was extremely low with a marked increase from 500 to 5000 people in attendance only recorded last year. In a bid to address this and initiate a people centred budget City of Mutare town clerk Blessing Chafesuka said the municipality this year agreed to recommendations by the budget committee to do door to door budget consultations in addition to the customary stakeholder and ward based consultations. The budget committee consists of representatives from residents associations, civic society groups, industry and commerce, Small to Medium Enterprises, Informal sector, media and the public sector.

During a media briefing held last week Friday, Chafesuka vowed that they are listening local authority that wants to build sound relations with ratepayers, which is why they direly want their input.

“For the past three years we have been making changes following recommendations by residents. We dropped some levies last year and introduced new ones like the Sports Levy. So some people think these consultations are just for show but that is not true. We are listening local authority,” said Chafesuka.

Adding, “Residents should cooperate with those doing the surveys when they visit their homes so that their views can be collected and incorporated into the 2026 budget. Everyone will have a voice in the city’s plans, which makes it easy to implement, leading to improved service delivery, so everyone should be involved and must participate.”

The town clerk said the door to door consultations that started last Friday will run for 10days in all the wards, targeting not less than 20 000 participants.

He said the consultation will help improve buy in from the people on how to efficiently operate and work hand in glove.

“We are changing things in terms of how we operated. Times have changed and we need to lessen the burden on ratepayers which is why we want their input and collate every suggestion then see how best to incorporate the majority views of the people into the final 2026 budget proposal that will be sent to the Minister of Local Government and Public Works,” said the town clerk. He added that the process will be done in collaboration with the budget committee representatives for transparency.

Amongst the major challenges raised, the town clerk said the continued non payment of bills by government departments and the Mutasa Rural District Council is imposing a heavy financial strain on their operations.

“Government departments owe US$2 400 000 and Mutasa RDC owes US$983 000,” said Chafesuka. He also raised concerns about the 2025 devolution fund which was not disbursed. He said the ZIG81 932 100 (US$1 517 261.11) allocated for devolution funded projects in 2025, no disbursements were received.

Chafesuka implored residents to bear with them as they are addressing legacy issues. He guaranteed residents that their vision to build a smart city will be realized which is why they are also focusing on revenue generating projects as a local authority so that they do not overburden residents with high tariffs always when non controllable expenditures accrue from elements such as inflation.