Urban local authorities say they remain unable to deliver essential services effectively because key financial and administrative powers continue to be controlled by central government, despite constitutional provisions for devolution.
The debate has intensified after the Treasury recently admitted in Parliament that it had not disbursed the constitutionally mandated five percent of national revenue to local authorities for five consecutive years, citing non-compliance by some municipalities.
Speaking on This Morning on Asakhe, a daily current affairs programme hosted by CITEZW on X, Bulawayo Mayor David Coltart said local authorities were being denied the authority and resources needed to fulfil their constitutional mandate.
He argued that Zimbabwe had failed to fully implement Section 264 of the Constitution, which provides for the devolution of governmental powers and responsibilities to provincial and local authorities.
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“This is rooted in Section 264 of our national Constitution. It is very clear that effective power needs to be devolved down to local councils so that they can determine what their own priorities are and they must be given the means to implement their developmental goals.
“We only respect the letter of the law, not its spirit that is present in Zimbabwe. In my view there is not an effective and fair devolution of power down to local authorities. We have not received anything like our fair share of the national budget from the government,” he said.
Coltart said local authorities should be able to make decisions independently, without interference from central government.
He cited the government’s procurement of fire engines from Belarus as an example.
“If you look at the Constitution it says that local authorities must make decisions themselves. For example, in 2024 when I came into office I was advised that the central government had negotiated the purchase of fire engines from Belarus and they were simply handed over to us.
“The Bulawayo City Council was not consulted in any way. We were simply told to take these fire engines and our research showed that we could have bought much better quality fire engines for the amount of money that the central government spent on them using devolution funds,” he said.
Coltart also said delays in releasing approved devolution funds had affected service delivery.
“Last year we had funds allocated to us and we have vehicles on order which we have not been able to pay for because those funds have not actually been transferred.”
He said powers that previously rested with local authorities had increasingly shifted to central government agencies.
“Bulawayo has six dams which it built with its own funds starting back in the 1940s, and in the 1980s all of the dams were taken over by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA). We now have to pay ZINWA for water from dams that the city built.
“The same applies to the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA). In the past, residents paid vehicle licence fees and that money went directly to their local authority to maintain roads. Now the money goes to ZINARA and we literally have to beg to get it back. In our view, the money does not come back equitably.”
Kariba Mayor Ralph Nyasha Maoneyi said Zimbabwe’s constitutional commitment to devolution had yet to be translated into an effective governance framework.
“The reality is the ideal needs to be made practical through a number of legal instruments and structures. From the time the Constitution was adopted until today, those structures have not been put in place to ensure that devolution becomes a reality.”
He said the absence of enabling legislation continued to undermine implementation.
“You have Section 264, but we do not have a clear intention from central government to ensure that devolution becomes a reality. Instead of a Devolution Act that makes it practical, we have a decentralisation and devolution policy, which still has a number of gaps.”
Maoneyi said Sections 264 and 301 of the Constitution provided a sound framework but had not been fully implemented.
“The ideal looks good as it is presented in Section 264 in terms of the structure and also in terms of the funding in Section 301, but in practice there is still a lot that needs to be done before we reach that ideal.”
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association programmes manager Claude Phuti said devolution should give communities greater control over local development.
“Devolution gives power to local people to determine the development direction of their own communities and enables them to participate meaningfully, rather than through casual consultations.”
He said aligning existing legislation with the Constitution was essential.
“There is a need for a comprehensive constitutional alignment process, including aligning the Provincial Councils Act, the Urban Councils Act and the Rural District Councils Act with the constitutional provisions and the decentralisation and devolution policy.”
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