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Pamela Shumba, Senior Reporter
COUNCILLORS should play their constitutional role in the implementation of devolution by identifying marginalised areas and working closely with the Government to improve them, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Cde July Moyo has said.
Speaking after a training workshop for Matabeleland North councillors in Bulawayo yesterday Minister Moyo said the workshop was part of Government’s raft of measures to work with local authorities in the implementation of devolution.
Minister Moyo has been holding workshops with councillors, Town Clerks and chief executive officers of local authorities to familiarise them with the laws that govern their work.
“It’s important that councillors understand the constitution of the country because it gives them the powers to run their councils independently and implement devolution. These powers are different from provincial councils and central government.
“The constitution commands us to give opportunity to communities to indicate what their marginalisation entails. It could be water, health, roads or electricity. We therefore have to budget for it so that the Government can work towards uplifting those who have remained behind,” said Minister Moyo.
He said in order to implement decentralisation, councillors and their staff must understand how to budget for it.
“This is the intention of the constitution and President Mnangagwa has said we must implement it. I’ve just finished meeting the councillors here in Bulawayo, Matabeleland South and North and the objective of the workshops is to make them ready to present their well thought out budgets, raise their own money and exploit the Government to assist them.
“The purpose of the workshops is to also try to alert them about the issues in their own Acts such as the Rural District Councils Act and the Urban Councils Act. It’s important that councils are run within the law using the statutes of the constitution. If they do that, particularly if they look at the provisions of the constitution they can attack the issues of marginalisation,” said Minister Moyo.
He added that from his interactions with the councillors, those who live in border areas feel they’re marginalised in all sectors.
“As the Government, we should come up with better ways to uplift the standards of living of the people in these areas. For every power that has been given to our local authority, there’s an enabling act.
“Central government has to work directly with the local authorities to uplift service delivery. There should be no “them” or “us” because chapter 14 of the constitution even states that there must be inter-governmental cooperation so that there is good service delivery in every part of the country,” said Minister Moyo.
Therefore, he added, central government officials who have been deployed to communities should work hand in hand with councillors and also train them.
“It’s a joint venture between central government and local government for the benefit of the people,” said Minister Moyo.
Devolution is captured in two chapters of the constitution namely Chapter 2 which deals with the political arrangements and Chapter 14 which deals with the financial provisions. — @pamelashumba1
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