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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
GOVERNMENT has renamed the offices of the provincial administrator and district administrator for effective implementation of devolution of power.
A provincial administrator will now be called a provincial development coordinator while a district administrator will now be called district development coordinator. Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Deputy Minister Cde Jennifer Mhlanga yesterday confirmed the changes.
She said the officials are now responsible for stimulating economic growth in their local authorities as Government implements devolution of power.
“This person now assumes the role of coordinating for economic development. We also expect this person to be influential in terms of stimulating local economic development in their areas. We want the local authorities to become economic engines so that they can have their own Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that will then be thrown into the provincial Gross Domestic Product which will then go into the national GDP. This is in that spirit of bringing the new impetus,” she said.
Government is forging ahead with devolution of power and in the Mid-Term Budget Review Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, increased devolution allocation from $310 million to $703 million for the country’s 10 provinces. Cde Mhlanga said Government is still refining the law that will govern implementation of devolution of power. She said her Ministry has moved across the country explaining to the citizenry how it intends to implement devolution.
Cde Mhlanga said in chairing the Cabinet Committee on Devolution, President Mnangagwa shows the urgency for its implementation. “When we talk about the implementation side, we still have a piece of legislation that guides us. That is the Act that I’m refining so that it would be the Act that we use to go and implement devolution. But in as far as other processes are concerned nothing stops us.
We have the provincial councillors but you will understand that the Constitution is also tricky when you look at Bulawayo and Harare. You will understand that there are issues as we are saying there is a provincial government but here we are, we are now bringing legislators from national government to also come into provincial government. These are issues that we must look at very carefully,” said Cde Mhlanga.- @nqotshili
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