Chronicle Editor
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, [email protected]
GWANDA Rural District Council’s first master plan aimed at guiding future development programmes in the district has reached an advanced stage after the local authority held a validation meeting on the findings of a report of a study by a consultancy company.
During the meeting attended by the rural district development committee members and development partners, Mr Khangela Ndlovu of Job Jika and Associates, a consultancy company engaged by the council to develop the masterplan, reported on the status of the district under various sectors, which included mining agriculture, environment, settlements, infrastructure and utilities, population, social services and the local economy.
The development of the master plan is in response to President Mnangagwa’s “Call to action- no compromise to service delivery”.
As part of the call to action, local authorities are expected to have developed masterplans by the end of next month.
A master plan is a roadmap detailing how the local authority ought to grow and deliver services in the next 20 years.
Mr Ndlovu said the validation process is meant to get input from stakeholders on the state of the district.
“As part of development of the master plan, we engaged various stakeholders under various thematic areas to collect information on the state of the district. We are here to present a summary assessment of the existing conditions of Gwanda, so that as stakeholders you can make contributions, which will feed into the report of the study,” he said.
“This summary looks at people, land, environment, vegetation, animals, livestock and infrastructure such as roads, schools and clinics, among other areas.
“From here, we will incorporate your inputs and then we will work on how we can develop Gwanda and address some of these issues or problems that we have identified,” he said.
In an interview, Gwanda Rural District Council chief executive officer, Mr Ranganai Sibanda said they will meet the June target.
“We are on course to meet our June 30 target for our master plan. The report of the study has helped us to gain a better understanding of the district and outstanding developmental issues,” he said.
“We now know where we stand as a district in terms of Agriculture, mining, tourism, road infrastructure, clinics, schools, the state of our forest, our economic wealth such as livestock production, among other issues.”
Mr Sibanda said the consultant will then develop a written statement that will be presented to the council, which will in turn proffer solutions on how to address those challenges.
“This will be the final step and we are hopeful that we will meet the month-end deadline,” he said.
President Mnangagwa officially launched the blueprint on “A call to action- no compromise to service delivery: the first stage of interventions to modernise the operations of local authorities towards a 2030 vision.”
According to the blueprint, the quality of service provision by local authorities should be in line with a standard upper-middle-income economy. An urgent and immediate requirement is for local authorities to achieve acceptable service delivery levels and observe all applicable laws.
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. The government will come up with minimum service delivery levels to be achieved by all local authorities.
Under the Call to Action, local authorities are expected to address the Government’s area of concern. These include compliance with applicable laws, leasing and selling of land by local authorities in servitudes, leasing and the sale of communal and agricultural land by local authorities and valuation of properties for rating purposes.
Online Reporter