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Martin Stobart
The Chronicle edition of 10 September quotes Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Dr Ignatius Chombo, warning that local authority officials and administrators who do not perform their duties as expected will be axed. I have no doubt that the Honourable Minister said everything in the strictest sense of the statement. Those of us, who follow national affairs especially ministerial pronouncements, will readily know that Dr Chombo is not one with a penchant for issuing vain threats.
Our own part as analysts and social commentators, or perhaps I should say as an analyst and social commentator, I expect the same approach by all Cabinet Ministers in ensuring that every civil servant and every parastatal employee puts in a full day’s work. (I am fully aware of the fact that some parastatals owe their employees salaries and wages running into millions of dollars over long periods of time).
Some are saying our economy improved since 2008 thanks to the inclusive government. I would have loved to contest that statement but I won’t; suffice to say that for me the period 2008 to July 2013 was a tragic one politically and an agonisingly protracted period of uncertainty and anxiety for Zanu-PF. Some of us who have come a long way with the party felt humiliated having to contend with counter-revolutionaries without ideological rooting; we found ourselves stuck with them. We were like Siamese twins with them and the specialist surgeon was a sworn enemy.
Hence I am saying we should all work harder than ever before, even harder than the war of liberation. This time the war is about economic emancipation and I am saying that all ministers should take the period 2013 to 2018 seriously.
Collectively the incumbent Zanu-PF Government just has to perform. We do not want yet another inclusive government. We do not want even that spectre to haunt us. The government employs civil servants. Parastatals and other quasi-State institutions fall within its sphere. These must all perform to expectations.
I am concerned with the performance of our local authorities. Virtually nothing is happening at all at these entities in terms of development. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to realise that if local authorities perform poorly, which they have done over the past few years, it becomes difficult for central Government to implement development programmes.
Local authorities throughout the country have been burdening rate payers and stakeholders with punitive tariff hikes, which tariffs in turn stifle development. These tariffs actually are imposed for the express purpose of raising revenue for the salaries and allowances of staff, especially senior staff.
In practically all cities, towns and rural district councils, there is poor service delivery. The quality of life and the standards of living among the communities have hit rock bottom.
Once, an officer of a local authority brazenly told a stakeholders’ consultative meeting that those who chose to invest in the low density suburbs were rich people and were therefore supposed to pay whatever is charged by council.
“Bale mali,” the officer declared contentedly. In the final analysis not only is this statement unfortunate and uncalculated, it is also extremely negative in the sense that it discourages potential as well as prospective investors as they feel and indeed fear, that the tariffs and levies on their property will be determined poorly against them. Therefore the moral of this utterance is wrong and counter-productive in terms of development.
You then have another local authority officer whose approach to social development is that black people do not aspire for decent living standards. For all intents and purposes decent social living standards are, or should we say, were an exclusive preserve of the white race, the officer’s statement seems to suggest.
Some may gloss over these statements and others may laugh them off. However, by and large, people, generally and regardless of social status or station in life have become enlightened and liberated. They are ever conscious of their rights and personal dignity.
The warning by Dr Chombo if it has to have any force and effect on those to whom it was directed, has to be followed by action. Development has to do, first of all, with the right attitude on the part of those in authority be they councillors, appointees (such as commissioners) or administrators/managers. Line managers (or line ministry staffers) should see to it that local authorities perform to expectations.
Communities have to be organised so that they live in conditions conducive to human habitation. Human beings constitute God’s species. The human kingdom is sacred. It organises for all other kingdoms on planet earth: the flora and fauna; the birds in the air; and the fishes in the oceans. When we talk about standards of living, we are not talking about whites but ourselves inclusively as humans and we even include other species.
As humans we are “custodians” of these as per God’s “injunction”. As long as we go about feeling that high standards of living are the preserve of the white race, our organisational, managerial and administrative perspectives will be retrogressively affected. It is not by coincidence that local authorities and parastatals have performed so dismally over so many years. Managers of these institutions will continue to punish rate payers by imposing unsustainable rates so that they can continue to draw their salaries.
There is a provision in both the Urban Councils Act and the Rural District Councils Act for the submission of objections to the minister by aggrieved parties provided the objection is accompanied by a list of 30 names of bona fide rate payers/businesses. This law is a colonial relic. It was designed for the whites since they were the only ratepayers before Independence. In fact, in those colonial days the Minister of Local Government is the one who presided over all consultative meetings in all the towns and cities unlike today when this responsibility is vested with the local authorities. The result is that rate payers and stakeholders are being cheated as objection letters in some cases do not reach the minister.
Also, emerging towns such as Lupane and the growth points are disadvantaged if we go by provisions of the above mentioned Acts. How many growth points (including Lupane town) in the country have 30 cocktail butcheries, 30 hair salons, 30 hardware shops, 30 cocktail bars even if you include bottle stores in that figure? In fact some growth points do not have 30 shops overall. And so this law is oppressive and tramples upon the rights of entrepreneurs in the rural areas to the advantage of the cheating local authorities.
Furthermore, the ministry itself has been a let down on approval of municipal budget proposals. My suggestion is that in order to protect vulnerable rate payers, stakeholders and ordinary residents, the ministry reverts to the practice of putting a cap on tariff hikes. Not so long ago tariff increases were negotiated between six percent and 10 percent. Further, the system should not be a blanket one that is to say that it should apply differentially according to the status of the local authority; rural district council, municipality or city council.
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