Residents in Harare have called on the city fathers to accelerate and improve service delivery in the capital and desist from wasteful spending on 'unnecessary' vehicles for senior officials.

The council is being roundly condemned for buying two top of the range vehicles for the town clerk Tendai Mahachi and Josephine Ncube, the chamber secretary. The vehicles will cost the cash-strapped municipality close to $350 000.

Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo and the Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda have apparently joined forces to defend the Council decision to buy the vehicles, a Toyota Land Cruiser V8 valued at $190 000 and a Jeep Grand Cherokee valued at $117 000.

Simon Muchemwa our correspondent in the city told us most residents are against the purchase of the vehicles and are riled that council is barely able to carry out its mandate to improve the image of Harare.

The residents have instead implored the council to improve their service delivery, in line with the vision of the MDC-T led council that aspires to foster national development through effective delivery of services.

Muchamwa said residents view the buying of the two vehicles as a ridiculous waste of public money.

'They view the whole situation as ludicrous despite the fact that the purchase of the vehicles is part of the contractual obligations the city has on the two directors. They are saying if there is no money for basic services so why should council go out of their way just to please two officials rather than the millions of residents in the city,' Muchemwa said.