admin
Nobleman Runyanga-Herald Correspondent
Cde Minister Daniel Garwe, congratulations on your re-assignment to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works last month.
This is an opportunity and a new trajectory to serve your country and nation, thanks to President Mnangagwa for entrusting you with this special position.
We cherish the President’s trust in you.
With the Ministry under your charge, we look forward to a positive change in the way that our local authorities, especially urban ones, are run after over two decades of opposition mismanagement.
Cde Minister, you have been assigned to superintend over the Ministry at a time that most urban dwellers have religiously voted for the opposition, which promised them smart cities only for the successive various factions and formations of the opposition to return the favour by “transforming” our urban spaces into garbage cities and towns where the absence of basics of service delivery such as potable water and regular refuse removal have now been accepted as the norm.
If the opposition chooses to normalise garbage, that is its own choice, but Zanu PF and Central Government will never endorse the nonsense, but will rectify the issue.
Zanu PF has always been about the people right from the time of its formation and we should not allow it to be forced to deviate from this sacrosanct principle by a directionless opposition outfit which has neither a constitution nor an ideology.
Cde Minister, this means your job is cut out for you. It means rolling up your sleeves, putting your shoulder to the wheel and your boots to the ground to redeem the party from the untenable local authorities’ situation which over the years we have allowed the opposition to drag us into.
Many urban residents have grappled with problems for years. For example, Harare residents have had to make do with a municipality which estimates water consumption figures because of non-functional meters.
This is worsened by a non-existent billing system. They are forced to pay for services which are never delivered.
Residents have watched Harare’s reluctance to solve such problems and if Government also does nothing about it, it runs the risk of being bunched together with the uncaring opposition-presided City of Harare.
Honourable Minister, residents are looking up to you to bring a change to their city by prevailing over the local authority to attend to their concerns over very basic issues.
The other area that you should deal with decisively as soon as possible is the notion among politicians, especially those from the opposition that winning a seat in a local authority chamber is an open ticket for self-enrichment through benefits like commercial and residential stands as well as travel and subsistence allowances.
Over the years, the nation has witnessed councillors in local authorities in Chitungwiza and Harare taking advantage of being in council to parcel swathes of land out for personal financial gain.
These are pieces of urban land designated for other uses such as schools, churches or just breathing spaces.
Chitungwiza was a very well planned town until opposition councillors came onto the scene and turned the town’s plan on its head and created residential stands everywhere, resulting in a crowded and unsightly town.
Interestingly, even municipal executives have also borrowed a leaf from the councillors.
Recently, ZBC TV reported on how City of Harare executives abandoned serving Harareans and trooped to the municipality’s fuelling facility in Belvedere to fill up their cars while residents went unserved.
One is not surprised. If councillors, who are expected to play an oversight role over the operations of local authorities have abdicated their duty in pursuit of financial gains, one expects the executives to follow their bad example.
The councillors’ push for self-enrichment has also seen them avoiding using local venues for retreats in preference for distant and luxurious ones in places such as Nyanga and Victoria Falls to make the most in allowances at the expense of their residents.
We expect you to disabuse the councillors of the habit and ensure that they know that being elected into councils is about serving residents and not oneself.
Another ill at some urban local authorities is the prioritisation of feel-good projects at the expense of important ones that facilitate improvement in service delivery and residents’ experiences.
The world will forever remember how Harare City Council Jacob Mafume fought Sakunda Holdings which proposed refurbishing Rufaro Stadium in Mbare last year and went to commit valuable resources to the project at a time that the city was grappling with a cholera outbreak and mounting mounds of uncollected refuse all over the capital city.
The same official is known more for fighting Government over the latter’s transfer of the motor vehicle licensing function from the City of Harare to the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) than fighting for the residents and the Harare electorate that voted him into council.
It is evident that some opposition councillors are in place to play cheap politics with the lives of innocent residents. Cde Minister, we are looking expectantly up to you to put to an end to this political childishness and restore sanity in our local authorities.
Cde Minister, some officials in urban and rural local authorities have hogged the limelight for corruption, abuse of office and outright theft in spite of the fact that there are laws to curb these vices.
For example, the Urban Council Act enjoins urban councils to come up with council standing committees to oversee the operations of the municipalities or town councils under their purview.
Despite the laws, the vices continue to flourish with the tacit approval of the largely opposition councillors.
Honourable Minister, if opposition councillors choose to be known for condoning corruption in the local authorities under their charge, it is their choice, but endorsing it by doing nothing about it as a Government militates against President Mnangagwa’s sworn position against corruption.
Corruption in local authorities derails development. The President is pushing for inclusive development and allowing corrupt councillors and municipal executives to work against him is not something you would wish to be associated with. Honourable Minister, we expect you to champion the creation of a robust framework to fight graft in local authorities. In my view, Chitungwiza is a crowded eyesore it is today because authorities were not proactive enough to realise that the town was running out of land for expansion.
The town, especially the Seke side, sits on former rural areas whose occupants were moved to create space for the urban area.
The same could have been done on time to enable the town to expand eastwards. The three farms which were given to the town for expansion came too late.
Matters were not helped by the chaotic manner in which Chitungwiza Municipality handled the allocation of stands at Nyatsime on one of the farms.
The land shortage in the town forced traditional leaders in neighbouring rural areas like Mayambara to work with their subjects to parcel out communal land to desperate home seekers, causing Chitungwiza to be hemmed in by an unplanned peri-urban settlement.
Harare is similarly hemmed in by urban and peri-urban settlements in Goromonzi and Zvimba Districts.
Under your watch, Cde Minister, we expect restoration of the order that was assured by proper urban planning. It is possible and many Zimbabweans are confident that you can restore order to our urban spaces.
Honourable Minister, you have been appointed to this key Ministry at a time that Government is already decongesting Harare with initiatives such as the development of Mount Hampden.
Government can decongest cities. For example, places like Beatrice and Melfort could be developed into modern satellite towns to complement to Harare.
It is possible and most Zimbabweans do not doubt your capability to deliver this.
When Cone Textiles, then the largest employer in Chitungwiza, folded at the end of 1994, the town caught an economic cold which it has never recovered from as most of the employees failed to pay their rates.
This emphasises the need for local authorities to market their investment opportunities and grow their economies.
Local authorities should identify, document and aggressively market their investment opportunities.
They can even partner with the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Authority (ZIDA) to achieve this.
Local authorities should not just wait for Government to bring them investors as they are the beneficiaries of sound economies in their cities and towns.
Your Ministry can work with ZIDA to come with a framework for marketing their investment opportunities, grow their economies and improve the quality of their residents’ lives.
A number of centres have been declared towns over the past few years, Cde Minister. These include Murambinda and Nyanga in Manicaland.
They require your Ministry’s hand-holding and nurturing into modern and successful towns which can take full advantage of their natural endowments for the benefit of their residents and the nation.
One cannot overemphasise the need for industrialisation and growing service sectors to develop the towns’ economies and create employment for the residents.
One appreciates that Rome was not built in a day but brick by brick, with you leading the effort, Cde Minister, Government can transform our local authorities and improve the quality of the people’s lives in line with the President’s Vision 2030.
You have the backing of the President and majority of Zimbabwe to achieve this.
I wish you the best in your new role.
Online Reporter