Chronicle Editor
Sukulwenkosi Dube- Matutu, [email protected]
LOCAL authorities should prioritise maintenance of roads and key infrastructure such as bridges leading to major economic projects in their areas to boost economic development.
Presidential Affairs and Devolution permanent secretary, Engineer Tafadzwa Muguti, said this in an interview during his recent visit to Matabeleland South, where he stressed the importance of vibrant service delivery by councils.
He noted that basic public service delivery such as accessibility to schools and clinics, water and roads, must be given top allocations on council budgets.
On its part, Eng Muguti said the Government will ensure the timeous disbursement of devolution funds.
“I’m impressed by the development projects, which I have seen being implemented by the Gwanda Municipality using devolution. We have seen here that the council has constructed a primary school, which has brought huge relief to children who had to walk long distances to school.
“I have also noted that there is no road connecting this school to the community. There is also a need for a bridge to make this school accessible because at the moment learners face a challenge in accessing the school during the rainy season.
“This defeats the purpose of having this school if it’s not accessible to learners. I would like to urge the council to prioritise developing a road and bridge in this area under the ERRP programme. We need to have these institutions that we are building being connected to the rest of the community,” said Eng Muguti.
He said public infrastructure such as roads and bridges can enhance economic development activities within provinces and expressed concern that emerging economic powerhouses such as Blanket Mine were operating without a proper road.
Eng Muguti said a proper road will ensure improved accessibility to the mine thereby boosting economic activity. He said investment in such infrastructure will also help boost production and challenged councils to identify such major economic players and prioritise their accessibility.
“The road infrastructure here isn’t very good and for a company like Blanket Mine, which is really contributing to the national economy, these are some of the priorities in infrastructure development plans that the province has to take on board,” said Eng Muguti.
“The same applies to companies and areas that are the major contributors to economic development.”
Meanwhile, the permanent secretary called upon local authorities to formalise their economies in to generate more revenue, which will then increase devolution funds. He said Government was losing money to unregistered businesses that were not paying taxes.
Eng Muguti said some local authorities were not bringing much revenue but were expecting devolution funds and urged them to put in place measures to increase their revenue collection.
He said the more revenue local authorities bring, the more devolution funds they will receive.
“Devolution funding is five percent of all the consolidated revenue that we would have collected. Unfortunately there are other districts and provinces that don’t understand that the more formalised the provincial economy is the more revenue they are likely to generate, which means more devolution fund,” said Eng Muguti.
“If we operate at 70-30 percent case where only 30 percent are paying tax and the 70 percent are informal then it’s going to affect Government coffers.
“What we would like the community to understand is that this is money coming from tax payers money and Government is being prudent enough to collect but at the same time if we have not collected then it will be difficult to collect money, which isn’t there.”
With social amenities and infrastructure development being some of the major pillars of the National Development Strategy (NDS1), local authorities have used devolution funds to augment efforts by communities and other stakeholders through ensuring that projects are completed timeously.
Devolution funds are assisting local authorities fulfil their obligation across the country through development of key infrastructure such as clinics, classroom blocks, roads, bridges among other facilities. —@DubeMatutu
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