Chronicle Editor
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, [email protected]
GWANDA District is conducting community consultative meetings in all its urban and rural wards to capture service delivery priority areas which is expected to feed into its master plan in response to President Mnangagwa’s “Call to action-no compromise to service delivery”
President Mnangagwa officially launched the blue print on “A call to action- no compromise to service delivery: first stage of interventions to modernise the operations of local authorities towards a 2030 Vision.”
According to the blue print, the quality of service provision by local authorities should be in line with a standard upper middle income economy.
Every local authority should, from an organisational, systems and physical planning perspective, be in a state to develop a road map towards a 2030 vision status. Government will come up with minimum service delivery levels to be achieved by all local authorities.
In an interview, Gwanda District Development Coordinator, Ms Nomathemba Ndlovu said the consultative meetings are important for local authorities improve service delivery.
She said teams that will be collecting information comprise council staff and representatives from various ministries and departments.
“We have rolled out consultative meetings which will be conducted in all urban and rural wards in Gwanda. During the meetings we will be capturing major issues under service delivery which communities want addressed by the local authorities,” said Ms Ndlovu.
“From there we will develop our first ever master plan as per the directive of His Excellency President Mnangagwa. The plan will basically project how the rural district and the town will develop and grow in the near future.”
Ms Ndlovu said following the launch of the Call to Action the local authorities in the district, they engaged stakeholders and a roadmap to guide the response to the call was crafted. She said the consultative meetings will also help the councils and the district to identify existing gaps under service delivery.
She said traditional leaders will play a crucial role in capturing the necessary information.
“The Call to Action is a much needed nudge for local authorities and the entire district as it will push us to deliver. We have to improve infrastructure development in various sectors, be it health, education, roads, bridges among others, “said Ms Ndlovu.
“Collecting relevant information through consultative meetings marks the beginning, but the actual work will come when it’s time to implement. Top notch service delivery while being guided by the master plan,’”
Under the Call to Action, local authorities are expected to address Government’s area of concern. These include compliance with laws, leasing, and selling of land by local authorities in servitudes, and leasing and selling of communal.–@DubeMatutu
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