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Governments are largely in place to deliver required services to the people of their country who need those services, and much of their acceptance and popularity depend on just how seriously they take this role, and how effective they are in delivery.
Internal auditing and controls can tell those in authority if they are doing better, and through a variety of methods, the Second Republic sets targets, through the national Budget, the contracts signed by ministers, permanent secretaries and senior civil servants heading major units.
We even have the 100-day cycles in Government that are monitored via the Cabinet, so that everyone is aware of just what is working well and what is working not so well and how that is being rectified.
That alone means that when progress is being assessed, the President and the rest of the Government are working on facts, and can quickly see where success needs to be reinforced and where disappointing progress can be looked at hard and fixed up.
The Government has done well, as democracies do, to periodically check on the effectiveness of their policies.
A democratic Government also needs to be aware of, and responsive to, public opinion and public understanding of what is happening.
Some of this can come from the people directly, and in these days of smart phones and social media a lot of opinion is circulated, although fact checking is often not done and many just express their disappointments.
We would assume that the present Zimbabwean Government also gets good feedback via the Zanu PF channels.
A proper political party with mass membership and a reasonable structure, and Zanu PF is the only one in Zimbabwe that meets either criterion, is extremely valuable, not just for mobilising support and feeding views in both directions, but also to help a Government keep its fingers on the pulse of popular opinion.
But many of these methods pick up the unhappiness, and people very rarely volunteer positive views as a matter of course.
So, the Second Republic, in its search for fact, uses not only the internal Government targets and how these are met, but also organises surveys, finding out what people think and last week Cabinet looked at the latest Report on the Citizen Satisfaction Survey and Baseline Survey on Work Culture Transformation.
Both brought together the results of the surveying process last year of a sample of 4 750 citizens and 1 170 civil servants from all 10 provinces and 72 districts.
A survey allows questions to be asked, rather than just accepting reactions, and so gives a lot more detail than say monitoring a social media debate site.
The general satisfaction had risen to 70,81 percent from the 67,78 percent recorded in 2022.
The Government was seen as generally knowing what it was doing, responding to people’s needs, responding generally to conditions, and being reliable.
The survey found that a large group felt there was need to improve on the ICTs infrastructure and equipment; inclusivity and gender and location which were in the “satisfied” category, rather than the higher categories on many other areas.
The five top rated ministries, departments and agencies were the Public Service Commission, (citizens – 77,47 percent and civil servants – 75,42 percent); Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Wildlife, (citizens – 73,70 percent and civil servants – 73,22 percent); Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development, (citizens – 73,12 percent and civil servants – 73, 73 percent); Ministry of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, (citizens – 75,30 percent and civil servants – 76,25 percent), and Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, (citizens- 72,87 percent and civil servants 72,85 percent.
It was revealing which two Ministries, those of Local Government and Public Works, and of National Housing and Social Amenities which saw their ratings fall from 2022.
These are the two ministries which share the burden of service delivery with local authorities, and in urban areas in particular the councils are thought to be deficient.
Some of the dissatisfaction comes from the Government having to largely allow local councils to act, or in many cases not to act.
The Government, via Presidential declarations of states of emergency, is becoming more active in some fields in some areas, although this bypassing of local autonomy can only really be justified when a service has totally collapsed, or at least come close to collapse, as well as event disasters, such as the Mbare Musika Traders Market fire.
In Harare and other urban areas, the Government stepped in over road maintenance and rehabilitation. Harare alone has seen declarations for garbage removal and pressure over other services, such as the water.
To a very large degree, people need to think about who they are voting for in local authorities. Some people simply vote the full party ticket at the harmonised elections, which is probably a safe option when a party pays a lot of attention to ensuring that candidates for even the most obscure council posts are at least qualified, have some popular backing and have been vetted. But opposition parties tend to be weak at this.
This particular fall in public perception is likely to reverse as people come to understand both the limits of central Government interference in council matters, and the greater activity from the Government in operating where it can, and in being more ready to sort of disasters in local government.
The Second Republic, it should be noted, both publicised the successes it has achieved and the greater satisfaction by citizens and employees of its progress, but also highlighted the areas where it recognises that it needs to push ahead more firmly.
This willingness to find out how it is regarded and to add user satisfaction as one of the criteria it needs to check to facts and figures will help to ensure the Government is responsive to its basic functions.
Online Reporter