Bulawayo councillors receive new office furniture


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Bulawayo: Christmas comes but once a year, yet humanity’s penchant for giving gifts cannot be confined to any particular day or month.

It is a universal trend, often spontaneous in character, and reaches deep into one’s soul, regardless of whether this belongs to the benefactor or beneficiary.

An occurrence which took place, Monday, 18 January, 2010, is no exception to the rule.

On that particular day, the first batch of office furniture, intended to bring relief to City Councillors, some of whom have to contend with bare or spartanly furnished offices, arrived at the ZDDT’s premises in central Bulawayo.

Making the delivery, Mr. Kinleyside, from the company that bears his name, said the consignment was part of a more comprehensive one which would include desks, chairs and the usual basic furnishing that one normally finds in office settings.

The whole idea of having such a scheme is to ensure that every elected local Councillor, will eventually have a fully equipped office, complete with online facilities, connected to a central data centre, in order to allow access to information and services. These work places would become venues for data exchange among residents in the Wards, who could also use the technology to pay their utility bills electronically, without having to travel long distances.

Funding this exercise is The Friedrich Neumann Foundation, with initiators ZDDT handling implementation.

So far every Councillor, approached about this exercise, has expressed enthusiasm, but most essentially, they have been extremely grateful to the funding partner for this very kind and thoughtful gesture.