Gweru mayor Josiah Makombe has been elected Urban Councils’ Association of Zimbabwe (Ucaz). Makombe is taking over form former Harare mayor Bernard Manyenyeni. The elections to choose the new Ucaz president took place on Thursday and Makombe (MDCA) got 57 votes with the defeated Abel Matsika (ZANU PF) getting only 7 votes.
After winning the presidency, Makombe had this to say
Firstly, I would like to thank all the city fathers who saw it fit that I occupy the position that will see me leading from the front.
I am going to hit the ground running and ensure that I work on the challenges that urban councils face. The biggest task I will put on my to-do list is to push for improvement in service delivery in all our towns. We really need to find a solution on how services like water provision, garbage collection and roads rehabilitation can be improved across the country.
Over the years, the government has not been effectively disbursing the money that should come from the fiscus to the urban councils. This is one of the reasons why councils have been struggling. I will need to work on that. We also need to find out how urban councils themselves can generate revenue outside the base of rates payments.
Councils must have other projects that bring in income, so I will try hard to work on that goal during my tenure.