Five years of progress or stagnation: An assessment of the government’s performance

By Sivio Institute

The government achieved an average 56% performance score. Agriculture and Rural Development (74%) was the best-performing cluster followed by local governance (63%). The worst-performing clusters were social services (42%) and eradicating corruption (44%).

Unfortunately, the incredible work done by the government in response to COVID-19 (social services) has been diluted by some of the intractable problems in the health sector and the lack of adequate government response to grievances such as poor conditions of service for medical practitioners.

Despite the brave promises to eradicate corruption, existing allegations suggest that the scourge could have worsened during the period under review. Meanwhile, there are some scores that may seem confusing, for instance, the above half score for governance, politics and civil rights and local governance. The bar was always low. It is important to remember that we are discussing performance based on the commitments that the ruling party made in their manifesto.

In this instance, the government made 11 promises to address issues of governance, politics and civil rights and they carried out 137 actions to fulfil these promises. Some of the actions implemented to date are:

■ Commencement of implementation of the Commission of Inquiry into 2018 post-election violence report recommendations.

■ Zimbabwe began the task of implementing the Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence Report Recommendations through the modernisation of 30 laws enacted during the Mugabe era, to meet Western Standards.

■ On 22 May 2019, Zimbabwe ratified the ILO Protocol on Forced Labour, as part of ongoing attempts to combat forced labour in all its forms.

■ The Constitutional Court banned the use of State security agents as public prosecutors at civilian courts, saying their secondment to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was a serious violation of the Constitution.

Furthermore, the government only made two promises towards improving local governance. These are:

■ Re-alignment of the service provision standards in all areas that include water reticulation, electricity, roads, and other support infrastructure.

■ Zero tolerance for corruption and incompetence in urban councils.

To date, the government has carried out sixty-six (66) actions to address issues of local governance. These include but are not limited to:

■ Implementing the constitutional provision for devolution by developing the policy for the same.

■ Disbursement of devolution funds.

■ Revival of the Urban Development Corporation (UDCORP) Board.

■ Upgrading water and sanitation through borehole schemes, new water treatment plants and piped water systems.

■ Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), engaging all council leadership and signing agreements of commitment to end graft within stipulated timeframes.

■ ZACC red flagging non-compliant Councils.