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The Government’s thrust since independence has been to bring services to the people’s doorsteps hence the many public facilities that have been constructed especially in the previously marginalised rural areas. Schools, clinics and government offices among other public facilities, have been brought closer to the people so that in many of the cases people can just walk to the institution for services.
The decentralisation of services to provincial, district or even ward level is an ongoing process meant to bring services closer to the people.
We therefore fully support the call by civil servants in Matabeleland North Province for the Government to expedite the completion of Government offices and houses for civil servants in Lupane town so that the workers can relocate to the town.
People from the province are being forced to travel to Bulawayo to seek Government services which is against the Government’s policy of bringing services to the people.
The Lupane District Administrator Mr Christopher Chuma, who was standing in for the Provincial Administrator, Ms Latiso Dlamini, told a Provincial Development meeting held in Bulawayo on Monday that workers who were supposed to be operating from Lupane town could not relocate to the town because there were no houses to accommodate them.
He said workers also had no offices to operate from. Mr Chuma said there were only 20 Government houses that had been constructed yet the Registrar General’s Office alone requires 32 houses to accommodate its staff.
He said water and electricity was yet to be connected to the new houses. The construction of Elitsheni Government Complex which is supposed to accommodate most Government departments is not yet complete.
The construction of the complex started in 2004 but due to inadequate funding, its completion has been delayed.
Lupane town was granted Matabeleland North provincial capital status in 1999 but the development of the town has been sluggish mainly because of inadequate funding for infrastructural development.
Most of the Government projects remain incomplete hence the delays in relocating Government offices to the town.
The former Governor for Matabeleland North Mrs Sithokozile Mathuthu, concerned about the distance people in her province were travelling to seek services from her offices in Bulawayo, in 2006 relocated to Lupane despite the fact that she had no offices or house in the town.
She and some Government departments had to squeeze themselves at the DA’s offices so that people in the province could access services from her office in the town.
The Matabeleland North civil servants cannot wait to relocate to Lupane town because they realise the suffering of the people who are forced to travel to Bulawayo to seek services.
The arrangement whereby civil servants from Matabeleland North are operating from Bulawayo is just not acceptable.
It is for this reasons that we appeal to Government to avail adequate funding to complete the Government office complex and houses for civil servants.
Lupane town cannot grow into a fully fledged modern town as long as the people who are supposed to facilitate development, the civil servants, continue operating from another province.
The present arrangement is even frustrating potential investors who have to travel to Bulawayo to seek services instead of being served in Lupane.
We want to once again implore the Government to prioritise the completion of Government projects in Lupane which are at various stages of development so that all Government departments can relocate to the provincial capital as soon as possible.
The people in Matabeleland North have waited too long for services to be brought near them as is the case in other provinces.
Lupane town as the provincial capital is lagging far behind when compared to other provincial capitals in the country.
Online Reporter