adminSome lawmakers were fired from their parties for a variety of reasons such as floor crossing while other constituencies lagged behind due to the fact that they did not have legislators to represent them.
The Minister of Finance Mr Tendai Biti allocated $8 million for the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in the 2012 national budget.
The CDF made some progress in addressing various developmental projects in a number of constituencies, thereby transforming local communities.
It was introduced in the 2009/10 fiscal budget with the aim of supporting development efforts at local levels and complementing the various other programmes and projects at national level.
Under this fund, MPs were expected to play their leadership role in the planning and execution of those local and community projects with an immediate impact on the livelihood of the communities.
It would concentrate on the construction of boreholes, the repair of schools and clinics, the building of market stalls and other such projects.
The CDF made significant strides in developing constituencies with MPs using it to drill boreholes and rehabilitate schools among other things.
In the 2012 national budget, each MP is going to get about $38 000 against the $50 000 they received from the previous allocation.
Last year, residents in Bulawayo bemoaned the reduction of the CDF allocation from $50 000 to $38 000 saying legislators could not do much with the $50 000 allocation and were worried if anything meaningful
could be done with the $38 000 in 2012.
Although it was mired in controversy in 2011, legislators are hopeful that 2012 will see transparency and accountability surrounding the fund.
Measures have been put in place to ensure that the fund is not abused.
Acute food and water shortages were a common phenomenon in a number of rural constituencies such as Insiza North, Umzingwane and Mangwe.
Urban constituencies such as Gwanda Central and Bulawayo Central saw minimal development with the electorate in the former complaining that the constituency had become a virtual rural constituency due to the obsolete infrastructure and the lack of development.
Chronicle caught up with some legislators to reflect on the year 2011 as well as establish their goals for 2012.
After having been quoted as saying that in his constituency, Bulawayo South, priority would be given to Ward 21 comprising Tshabalala and Sizinda, Mr Edward Graham Cross shockingly said he did not have anything specific to achieve this year.
Last year, Mr Cross said they had spent a lot of money in the rehabilitation of Barham Green Primary School in Ward 6 using the CDF allocation.
“From the previous allocation, our returns came up to $70 000 because we had to attend to a lot of things in the constituency but we will have other priorities this time around,” said Mr Cross.
In an interview yesterday, Mr Cross said in 2012, something needed to be done in order to improve the national economy.
He said if the economy improved, there would be development in the constituencies dotted around the country.
“I do not have anything specific targeted for the constituency but if there is economic development, then things will improve in constituencies as well. As it is, there is not enough money to develop constituencies,” said Mr Cross.
The legislator for Mberengwa East, Cde Makhosini Hlongwane said he wanted to continue driving the development agenda this year.
Reflecting on what he had achieved in 2011, Cde Hlongwane said he had initiated a number of important projects for the people in Mberengwa East.
He said there had been the construction of Bayayi Dam and the rehabilitation of a number of schools such as Batanai and Mapunya primary schools. About 11 schools in total were rehabilitated in the constituency last year.
There was also the construction of toilet blocks at six schools in Mataruse B3 Ward. Classroom blocks were constructed at Mwembe and Ruurangwi Primary Schools.
Cde Hlongwane said they had managed to start the construction of clinics in Murerezi, Masvingo and Zvomukonde wards. Their construction is set to get to greater heights this year.
Income generating projects such as poultry rearing and the drilling of boreholes in Ngungumbane were also achieved in the constituency.
For this year, Cde Hlongwane hoped that they would be able to continue the construction of the clinic projects.
“We want to finish off the classroom blocks that we started at Mahombe and Gomututu Primary Schools.
“We also hope to finish the roofing of Mataruse B2 community hall,” said Cde Hlongwane.
He said all other materials to complete the construction of the community hall were on site and only needed the beams and trusses. “Most importantly, we are looking forward to holding a peace conference as a constituency to ensure peaceful co-existence among and between the people of Mberengwa East and to guarantee a peaceful election in 2012.
“The provision of clean drinking water continues to be a challenge in almost all wards and we want to make a call to our development and social co-operating partners to help us alleviate this teething challenge,” said Cde Hlongwane.
“Further to that, Mberengwa East is experiencing food shortage, we call upon the Government to bring down the price of maize from $17 per 50kg a bag so as to enable poor rural people to afford buying the maize otherwise they die of hunger,” he added.
In 2011, legislators in rural constituencies said they deserved to receive more money for their CDF allocation while legislators for urban constituencies disputed this.
Lawmakers in rural constituencies argued that they had to start implementing developmental projects from scratch unlike in urban constituencies where it was only a matter of rehabilitating the existing infrastructure.
Expectations are high for the year 2012 and constituents can only hope that their legislators deliver.
The stakes are high for many legislators as there would likely be elections in 2012 that could see some legislators losing their seats.
- Feedback – [email protected]
Online Reporter