By Fanuel Chinowaita
MUTARE — Mutare City Council is set to commence its 2027 budget consultations next week, with Mayor Simon Chabuka calling on residents across the city to physically attend the meetings and take part in determining the local authority’s spending priorities for the coming year.
Chabuka made the appeal during a Full Council meeting held yesterday, stressing that residents should not leave decisions about the city’s finances to a small section of the population.
“People in Mutare should attend. It’s important that everyone takes part and decides our budget. Everyone should take part physically starting from next week,” Chabuka said.
The consultations come after the local authority’s 2026 budget process, which sought to address historically low participation in conventional public meetings by taking the exercise directly to residents.
The City of Mutare’s preparations for the 2027 budget come against the background of its previous consultation process, which saw council introduce a door-to-door approach to broaden public participation.
In October 2025, then Town Clerk Blessing Chafesuka told The Wasu Post that traditional consultations had struggled to attract residents, with only about 5,000 people participating in previous exercises.
“We cannot allow about 5,000 people to decide for approximately 280,000 residents,” Chafesuka said at the time, as council introduced a door-to-door consultation programme involving trained enumerators.
The Wasu Post reported that about 50 enumerators were deployed across the city under a partnership involving council, the United Mutare Residents and Ratepayers Trust (UMRRT) and other civic stakeholders. The teams visited households to collect residents’ views on tariffs, service delivery, roads, water, education and infrastructure.
Council initially targeted at least 20,000 residents through the exercise, compared with the approximately 4,000 to 5,000 residents who had participated in previous consultation processes.
By February 2026, reports on the approved budget indicated that the consultation exercise had reached more than 25,000 residents. With Mutare’s population estimated at about 280,000, that represented roughly 9 percent of the city’s residents.
The 75 percent figure reported in relation to the 2026 budget represented residents who endorsed the proposals among those who participated, rather than 75 percent of the city’s entire population.
The consultation process also resulted in residents raising specific projects and service-delivery priorities in their wards, some of which have since been implemented.
Ward 2 Councillor Gift Kadozora said residents in his ward were happy with council for fulfilling a commitment made during the previous budget consultation process.
Kadozora cited the construction of the Sakubva Clinic boundary wall, saying the project was one of the issues raised by residents during last year’s budget consultations.
“Residents of Ward 2 are happy with the construction of the Sakubva Clinic boundary wall. The boundary wall has restored the dignity, respect and privacy, especially to women who are carrying out their national duty by visiting maternity services. It was raised in last year’s budget consultation meeting,” Kadozora said.
He commended council for responding to the residents’ concerns and fulfilling its promise.
The councillor’s comments provide an example of how issues raised during budget consultations can be translated into specific projects at ward level.
The Sakubva Clinic project is particularly significant for residents who use the maternity services, with the new boundary wall providing greater privacy and separation for patients and the wider community.
The experience is likely to feature in discussions as residents prepare to participate in the 2027 budget consultations, particularly as council seeks to demonstrate that views raised during the process can influence its spending priorities.
The 2026 consultation process produced a range of concerns from residents, including the cost of water, roads, education infrastructure and the accountability of council revenue.
The exercise also contributed to the adoption of the 2026 budget, which included provisions for road rehabilitation, water and sewer infrastructure and the reintroduction of the Education Levy.
Chabuka’s latest appeal places renewed emphasis on physical participation as council prepares the 2027 budget.
“People in Mutare should attend,” the mayor said, emphasising that residents should physically participate in the consultations beginning next week.
The call comes as residents continue to raise service-delivery concerns in ward meetings, including roads, water, street lighting, sanitation and health infrastructure.
For council, the 2027 budget consultations will provide an opportunity to determine which of these competing demands should receive priority within the city’s available resources.
For residents, the meetings provide an opportunity to question council officials, propose priorities and scrutinise proposed tariffs before the final budget is adopted.
The challenge, however, remains turning calls for participation into actual attendance.
With previous conventional consultations attracting only about 4,000 to 5,000 participants, the 2027 consultations will test whether Mutare can further broaden public participation in decisions over how the city’s resources are raised and spent.