SHANTEL Yeukai Chiwara (25), who made history by becoming the first female mayor of Masvingo, has promised to improve the city’s service delivery to reduce the burden faced by women who shoulder the burden of crumbling social amenities.
MORRIS BISHI
Chiwara, the CCC councillor for ward two in Masvingo Urban, holds a degree in banking from the National University of Science Technology.
Speaking to The NewsHawks, Chiwara said being a woman, she will make sure that issues such as the provision of service delivery will be her top priority since women are disproportionately affected when services such as the provision of water, sewer reticulation, refuse collection and others are not provided.
She also said she will introduce programmes meant to empower the girl child in the city.
“Together with other councillors we will work towards a better service delivery for the city of Masvingo. This is in line with issues concerning water and sanitation, litter management, welfare of workers, sewer reticulation, health delivery and other things,” said Chiwara.
“As a woman, l know that women in our city are the ones bearing the brunt of poor service delivery.
“Women source for water at boreholes mostly during the night, they face sewer challenges during bursts, they also face challenges when health delivery is poor in our medical clinics. I will make sure that these challenges are addressed to reduce the burden being faced by my fellow women.”
She added: “I am also urging residents and ratepayers to play their part by paying their rates so that we can deliver the required services. We will also finish projects started by the previous council.”
Masvingo United Residents and Ratepayers Alliance (MURRA) spokesperson Godfrey Mtimba said the coming in of a female mayor has raised hopes of an improvement in service delivery since women are the ones who bear the brunt of poor service delivery.
Mtimba also said the time has come for the city council and other stakeholders in Masvingo to implement gender policies.
“As the residents’ representative body we expect that since we now have a female mayor she will address issues which impact on women, especially shortages of water,” Mtimba said.
“They are the ones who also bear the brunt of shortage of places at schools, among other things. We are also looking forward that she will also empower women and community clubs around the town. We also hope that she will spearhead the implementation of the gender policy by council.”
