The Harare City council risks losing out on investment partnerships it has with Christian denominations if it continues to hide loan acquisition information and other information relating to how it manages revenue it collects from residents, the Evangelical Fellowhsip of Zimbabwe has warned.

Our appeal and encouragement to the council is that they should know that there is a lot of expectations from the Christian community in terms of much of service are we going to give back to the community having known that a lot has been given to us. So we are talking about good stewardship.

“May we be able to be responsible enough, be able to account for every cent given but also be able to account for the time, for the resources that the residents have been able to entrust as a local authority,” the church’s projects programs officer, Blessing Makwara, told RelZim in Harare at the weekend.

The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe is currently working with communities which experience perennial water shortages such as Mabvuku and Tafara in drilling boreholes.

They are also supplying water treatment tablets to Harare city council through local clinics.

Harare City Council is under fire from residents who accuse the local authority of entering in clandestine loan procurement deals.

Residents believe that the reluctance by the city fathers to consult them when borrowing on their behalf means that the council is hiding something.

Currently the Harare city council is being forced by residents to divulge terms of the US$144 million loan it acquired from China for the rehabilitation of the Morton Jeffry water works.