MAYORS and chairpersons of the country’s 92 local authorities on Wednesday embarked on a three-day orientation programme at the Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology in Harare.
The workshop is in line with President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Call to Action — No Compromise to Service Delivery blueprint launched last year amid declining service delivery in local authorities.
The blueprint is meant to equip local authorities so that they play their part as Zimbabwe seeks to attain an upper-middle-income status by 2030.
The organisers felt local authorities needed to be exposed to the “ideals of national security and patriotism as espoused by the Chitepo School of Ideology”.
At the workshop, council officials, including town clerks and chief executive officers, signed the register as everyone invited was expected to attend.
The workshop was said to have been spiced with revolutionary songs popular during the country’s war of liberation.
We are not against council heads attending workshops meant to improve service delivery.
We have been consistent in hammering the point home that service delivery has virtually collapsed in urban councils, where uncollected garbage has become an eyesome in residential areas.
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We have also written extensively about how councils were blowing money meant for service delivery on workshops week in, week out, seen by critics as an avenue to pick up allowances.
We agree with government that all is not well in local authorities, although city fathers allege that some of the problems can be traced to central government.
Government’s gripe with local authorities stems from their inability to collect revenue due to shambolic billing systems.
This has compromised service delivery.
It is estimated that local authorities bill for about 60% of the water it generates.
Local authorities, according to government, stand accused of violating laws and policy guidelines as they are not following due process on public-private partnerships.
They stand accused of failure to produce audited accounts.
Government accuses local authorities of leasing and selling land in servitude in which leases are issued out purportedly for temporary occupation, yet, sooner or later, they are converted to permanency with full title.
The local authorities have also been accused of selling communal and agricultural land in breach of provisions of the Communal Land Act, the Rural District Councils Act and the Traditional Leaders Act.
“This practice is rampant in peri-urban areas close to major towns and cities where dysfunctional and informal settlements have emerged without the basic municipal services and at the expense of arable and grazing land,” government said.
We hope heads of local authorities will emerge from that meeting with fresh ideas after being “exposed to national security and patriotism” ideals.
It’s not only the indoctrination of the council officials that will see the removal of garbage in our suburbs, it’s also about providing the finances that are needed to carry out service delivery.
After the indoctrination lectures are over, central government should provide funds to all local authorities so that they can carry out their duties without excuse.
Next should be the fixing of the local authorities’ billing systems.
Government should read the riot act to local authorities that fail to fix their systems and dealing decisively with those who resist.
Viva patriotism viva!
Viva availing funds viva!
Viva fixing billing systems viva!
