Hosia Mviringi
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has raised concern over the manner in which local authorities, under the purview of opposition party MDC-Alliance have failed the people of Zimbabwe.
President Mnangagwa outlined a corrective strategy in which central government is set to take over some operations, in the interest of sanity.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa was speaking last night on national television in his wide ranging independence interview to mark 41 years of self-rule.
“But because we have seen that they have failed, this is why under the Second Republic, we have now instituted an Inter-Ministerial taskforce, led by the Honourable Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, to deal with, overriding the authority of these councils, so that we can provide to our people the services which these local authorities have failed to provide.
So as Central government we are intervening using central government resources to do so,” said President Mnangagwa.
When we talk of service delivery, the City of Harare quickly comes to mind as a case study.
The city has failed to provide basic services to residents despite collecting millions of dollars monthly as service fees.
Water and sewer bursts have not been attended to, exposing residents to threats of water-borne diseases, while large sections of the city suburbs go for months without portable water in the taps.
Yet refuse collection is now a luxury.
President Mnangagwa in the interview raised pertinent points which indicate that failure by the local government to provide appropriate services to residents reflect badly on the central government as the mother body.
Local authorities are a subsidiary of central government by nature, and that umbilical cord can never be severed, thus the central government’s vested interest and commitment to see efficiency return to councils and municipalities.
“Now we are realising the question of housing, the question of correcting wetlands, the question of clean water and so forth. I think you have seen on TV now, new equipment being installed. That equipment was not bought by the councils or municipalities, no, it is central government which is intervening using our resources at central government level to make sure that we provide services to our people,” he continued.
As part of the government commitment to intervene positively to ensure service delivery, the President hinted that very soon he will commission two dams one of which is Causeway Dam, which will contribute clean water to the city of Harare.
“All that is now being done by central government because our people come first,” said President Mnangagwa in one of his finest interviews to date.
President Mnangagwa further challenged residents to bring to account the Councillors they elect.
“They can’t continue electing councillors who do not deliver.
When Councillors are elected they are supposed to deliver services to the people who elected them, and not bring misery,” concluded President Mnangagwa.
The latest government action comes on the backdrop of the City of Harare failing to account for its 2020 ZINARA allocation of $46.5million for road rehabilitation programs.
Out of a targeted 1130 kilometres of road for rehabilitation, the city only managed a paltry 28 kilometres.
This is so even when the city collects millions of dollars from rate-payers monthly.
Rampant corruption and diversion of funds to opposition political party activities have been seen as the reason behind lack of commitment and capacity to deliver services to the rate-paying residents.
Recent Comments