By Dorcas Rumano
Netizens have castigated utterances by MDC leader, Nelson Chamisa who refuted that his councillors were responsible for the poor service delivery and water crisis in Harare.
Commenting on a post by Hopewell Chin’ono’s which alleged that Government was responsible for water crisis in Harare, Chamisa responded saying, “Fine point. I see MDC councils get the blame for what is essentially a State responsibility.”
Chamisa’s response did not go well with most netizens who believe that it is the responsibility of the MDC-led Harare City Council (HCC) to provide the citizens with clean water.
Logan Chasi replied to Chamisa’s tweet saying, “Nelson usanyepera vanhu iwe ZINWA is no longer responsible for water supply in Harare. What happened to the loans by Chinese banks? Your councillors decided to introduce prepaid water meters after getting a cut from Indians yet 40% of water is lost through burst pipes.”
One netizen, Major Chirenda replied, “In short, what are you responsible for? Let's forget other people's responsibilities. You tell us what you are responsible for and what you are doing to meet those responsibilities. If you have none then there is no point for your existence.”
Michael Mutekedza reminded the MDC leader that his councillors are incompetent and they are not aware of their duties. He tweeted, “Please do not give excuses for incompetency. Your team does not know its roles and function.”
Farai Nyamadzawo also lambasted the MDC leader saying, “There lays the problem with the blame game. Despite the current drought, councils are failing to avail water because the distribution infrastructure is in a state of neglect by City of Harare's own admission that over 40% of purified water is lost via spillages and leaks.”
Adding on to that, another netizen, Timothy Chipangura said, “City council is an inter-governmental interest group. It cannot divorce itself from the water crisis by deflection. There a number of ways in which it can pressure the Central Government to initiate water projects.”
HCC has been criticised for poor service delivery. Most suburbs in the capital city have more than two years without tape water, while other areas only get tape water once in a week.
