Local authorities are expected to submit master plans for transforming and developing their respective jurisdictions to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works by the end of this month.
The ministry has claimed that councils, particularly those in urban areas, are run by “incompetent, inefficient, and ineffective” councillors, so they must present these plans for regeneration.
According to the Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Daniel Garwe, the ministry must champion the production of a master plan by all local authorities, evaluation reports and enterprising resource plans.
“We are meeting on Thursday with all the local authorities to assess the progress made to date in terms of producing the master plans. The deadline for submission to the Government is June 30, 2024,” he said in Parliament.
However, local governments have blamed a lack of resources and funding as the cause of their deteriorating service delivery, while the government occasionally takes too long to approve their budgets.
In response, the local government minister said the government was constrained due to sanctions while councils were also incompetent.
“Zimbabwe has been under sanctions for a period of more than two years. Yes, it is a fact, we are under sanctions. What sanctions mean to a simple mind is that we cannot access affordable finance from international financiers and incompetence being demonstrated by urban local authorities,” Garwe said.
Garwe claimed that the government could not pour resources into incompetent funding councils.
“There is no substitute for incompetence. We cannot continue to plough resources into local authorities that are being run by incompetent, inefficient, and ineffective councillors,” said the minister.
“The issue is not to do with where authority is resident; it is incompetence. You cannot employ a hyena to look after your goats. That is the situation that we have. It is not about people but about people who are not competent to deliver for the people.”
The minister insisted the government has “a serious problem with the performance of the local authorities” and if they were incompetent, they needed regeneration.
The minister faced objections from Members of Parliament who accused him of generalizing.
“The Hon. Minister has generalized that there is incompetence in the Local Government and local authorities,” said Engineer Leslie Mhangwa, asking the minister to explain where the incompetence is.
Eng. Mhangwa said local authorities, both urban and rural areas, were independent of each other but shared a common factor, the Ministry of Local Government, which could be the problem.
“The Chief Executive Officer of the local authority is the Town Clerk and his directors. We are independent in each of the local authorities. Some councillors are independent in each of the local authorities, be it urban or rural, but there is one common factor. If it is general, then the problem is within the common factor which is the Minister of Local Government because he superintends all independent organizations. If there is incompetence, we need to differentiate,” he said.
Zimbabwe has never been under sanctions, but certain individuals are, this is just to correct Daniel Garwe’s assertion.. Corruption ordained by Government and general malaise orchestrated by the same is to blame..