Chronicle Editor
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
THE Government has expressed its commitment towards improving the livelihoods of the general populace through the adoption of a Citizen Centric Action plan (CCA) that will see the continued implementation of devolution, decentralisation and digitisation as part of its broader efforts towards achieving an upper-middle-income economy status by 2030.
The plan is expected to deal with the sprouting of illegal settlements and land barons as well as capacitate traditional leaders through cell phones as Government moves from electronic-government to mobile-government.
The Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Winston Chitando, reaffirmed this position during a strategic review workshop that ended yesterday in Masvingo where he reminded various stakeholders under his ministry to play their part in improving service delivery in line with the President Mnangagwa’s instructive pronouncement that there should be no compromise on service delivery.
“We have been witnessing growth in various sectors of the economy such as agriculture, mining, tourism and manufacturing amongst other sectors. The growth means service provision and infrastructure levels have to be commensurate with the developments and that is where we come in as a ministry.
“Our local authorities by 2030 should be such that they are supporting the upper-middle-income economy through provision of adequate service delivery and infrastructure. A call to action is the first stage of intervention for our local authorities to transform into an upper-middle-income economy. Each authority should come up with a plan to transform and we have to spearhead this transformation,” said Minister Chitando.
Speaking at the same workshop, the ministry’s permanent secretary Dr John Bhasera said the ministry had a huge responsibility, at an individual level and more importantly collectively, to play a part in delivering on the commitment made by President Mnangagwa to the people of Zimbabwe of becoming an upper middle income country by the year 2030. He said the 2030 status must be felt and must be seen through the livelihoods of the people which defined their mandate.
“Already, the President has challenged the ministry and local authorities with his call to action “No Compromise to Service Delivery”, launched on 1 November 2023. The President has set the tone and we now need to do the right thing. The right thing is action. They say, take action if you want transformation, take action if you want development and take action if you want to transform lives. Our actions should seek what is right for our country, for the people of Zimbabwe, for our principals, for our economy and for future generations.
“We need to understand that our Vision 2030 accelerators, from a Local Government and Public Works perspective are devolution, decentralisation, digitisation and development. We need to improve service delivery as has been instructed by President Mnangagwa’s call to action. We need to curb illegal settlements and the so-called land barons through planned land distribution,” said Dr Bhasera.
He said this could be done through putting in place various master plans that include the National Water Master Plan, Municipal Water Master Plan, Municipal Waste Water Master Plan and the Integrated Housing Development.
He also spoke on the need for proper urban transport planning, forward planning for the emerging economies like Manhize, Tugwi-Mukosi, New city, Kanyemba and Lake Gwaai-Shangani, among others.
Turning to the capacitation of traditional leaders, Dr Bhasera said his Ministry was looking at how best they could resource the traditional leaders through cell phones for all chiefs, all headmen and all village heads to ease communication challenges. @nyeve14
Online Reporter