Zilga is born – finally

Local authority bodies seal merger…Manyenyeni interim president

Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
The county’s urban and rural local authorities have finally agreed on a constitution for the Zimbabwe Local Government Association (ZILGA) following years of haggling around leadership and the secretariat of the organisation.

Acting ZILGA president, Harare Mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni, said the move would help in resolving issues affecting local authorities under one body.

“The coming together of the entire local government family in the country gives a combined space for local issues and a single face for international re-engagement,” he said.

Over the years, ZILGA has experienced an on and off kind of existence as there were disagreements within the associations on the nature of the merger.

“One party felt that the association had to dissolve and have only one national local government association while on the other hand the other party believed that the two associations did not have to dissolve, but rather maintain their status and have ZILGA as an umbrella body made up of Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe and the Association of Rural District Councils of Zimbabwe,” Clr Manyenyeni said.

“The two associations therefore did not dissolve and agreed to have ZILGA as an apex body. The constitution of the association provided for a rotational presidency. One association would provide the president while the other provided the vice president for a period of two years after which the other association provided the president will have a vice president.”

ZILGA came into being in 2006 bringing together UZAC and ARDCZ.

A constitution for ZILGA was drafted and signed by the two associations.

“The signing of the constitution will enable ZILGA to be operational and well as carrying out lobby and advocacy work on behalf of its members. In addition, ZILGA will be the local authorities’ link to the outside world,” Cllr Manyenyeni said.

“That is to say that whenever UCAZ and ARDCZ are invited to foreign meetings by international bodies in which they are members individually, they will attend as ZILGA. It is therefore imperative for the ZILGA leadership to ratify the amendments. ZILGA will be able to open a bank account and deposit funds for its activities.”

Mr Shingirai Mushamba of the Municipal Development Partnerships for Eastern and Southern Africa said his organisation and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum now looked forward to the operationalisation of ZILGA saying the importance of a strong local government association could not be overemphasised.