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Runesu Gwidi in MASVINGO
Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo says there is need for Government to ensure Senators and National Assembly members do not become members of provincial and metropolitan councils.
Government has been forging ahead with plans to devolve power to provinces to ensure grassroots have more say in the development trajectory of their areas.
Section 268 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (Chapter 14) provides that Senators and National Assembly members be part of the provincial and metropolitan councils mandated with spearheading provincial economies under devolution.
In his address at a Masvingo provincial devolution conference here on Monday, Minister Moyo said Government urgently needed to fine-tune the Constitution to exclude National Assembly members and Senators from provincial and metropolitan councils.
He said it was a serious anomaly for Members of Parliament to superintend over the same developmental budgetary programmes they would have decentralised in the august House.
“Their (Senators and National Assembly members) involvement in provincial and metropolitan councils is just as good as supervising themselves,” said Minister Moyo.
“In other words, MPs would strain remuneration budgets for the provincial councils and ultimately disrupt the entire sense of devolution.”
The Cabinet minister said allowing MPs to sit in provincial and metropolitan councils would be akin to allowing the legislature to supervise itself.
“In my view, the first thing before setting the ball rolling on the devolution agenda is to amend the Constitution and remove this glaring anomaly. The legislature cannot be accountable to themselves,” he said.
Minister Moyo said the separation of powers in the devolution model mandated provinces to craft their own master plans which would feed into the national agenda.
Senators will be instrumental on the national agenda for development. We must let the provincial and metropolitan councils manage provincial affairs.
Online Reporter