|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
|
As the umbrella organ playing the oversight role over the way Zimbabwean local councils discharge their mandate for service delivery, the Zimbabwe National Organisation of Associations of Residents Trusts (ZNOART) has registered great concern over the way most local authorities have abrogated their national mandate of service delivery and now use their privileged positions to “loot” and “line their pockets” at the expense of service delivery.
The organisation says local authorities in Zimbabwe have been characterised by a continuous deterioration in the area of service delivery
As such, ZNOART seeks to draw the attention of the nation to the unfortunate transformation of the country’s local authorities into havens of corruption, poor water services, uncollected refuse and burst sewerage systems, unplanned housing and the parcelling of land, and, above all, a foil to the country’s trajectory towards Vision 2030.
Corruption, misappropriation of funds, illegal land invasions, and criminal abuse of office are some of the ills that have rocked most urban councils with several councillors and council officials having been arraigned before the courts and never sentenced.
“We have witnessed the Mutare council’s US$12 million fraud by sitting councillors swindling the ratepayers at the expense of service delivery, passing resolutions to use higher rates of travelling and subsistence allowances for their pockets, and the missing US$200 million from Harare City Council coffers after the local authorities terminated a contract with its financial software supplier.
“As residents, we are therefore demanding that all council workshops be done locally in their respective local cities until such a time service delivery improves. Through our network of representatives across the country’s administrative local authorities, ZNOART continues to receive disturbing news about the rot and corruption that haunts many councils in Zimbabwe,” ZNOART said in a statement.
From other cities, like Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, and Mutare, ZNOART is calling for forensic and lifestyle audits to be conducted on all current employees, former and long-serving council, and municipal officials. It is concerned that there are cabals that are lining their pockets through land parcelling and tender scams.
“How does a local authority decide to approach land use outside the provisions of the laid down procedures and blueprints without following the housing and waiting list which has been proven to work in the last decades as it ensures residents get stands transparently? Land barons who have invaded our wetlands and land reserved for recreational facilities are causing havoc everywhere with evidence that they work hand-in-glove with council officials. As residents, we await the day these land barons and council officials will be tried and jailed as all hope has been lost of them to be incarcerated for fleecing residents’ hard-earned investments.
“Land barons and space barons have no space in our communities as they belong in jail. We call upon our judicial systems to try these cases and treat them with a matter of urgency. ZNOART is equally concerned with the way most residents have accepted water woes as a norm rather than an exception. To have people getting to 25 years of age in their locality of birth with no access to running water in this modern age is a mockery of the country’s independence.”
In Masvingo, Bulawayo, and Harare, residents have gone on for many years without the precious liquid (water), yet the councils continue to charge exorbitant bills for a service they are not giving. In like terms, one is irked by the way councils rely on “estimates” for their billing system, thus prejudicing many residents, particularly Harare operating without a functioning billing system for a long time now.
Recently, councils rebased bills to foreign currency. In these circumstances, ZNOART is challenging and demanding that councils must furnish residents with proof of any legal basis for rebasing the 2022 tariffs.
“There is no provision for rebasing of a budget under our laws in Zimbabwe. Furthermore, all the approved 2022 budget does not contain any provision allowing for rebasing and to that extent, the rebasing of 2022 tariffs has no basis. We wish to advise that the rebasing of the 2022 tariffs in United States dollars is contrary to the clear provisions of Section 288 of the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29:03) as read with Section 47 of the Public Finance Management Act.
“Residents, as interested stakeholders, expect the money that they pay in rates and tariffs to be channelled towards worthy causes such as service delivery Without clean water, and non-collection of refuse, an urban area loses its lustre but this has become the way of life in most suburbs of Zimbabwe.
“With regards to parking charges being hiked willy-nilly by councils, it boggles the mind as to how the councils expect people to religiously meet these service charge obligations when there is no development to talk about. The exorbitant parking fees we have witnessed recently in Bulawayo and Harare (and penalty on defaulting motorists) are a cause of concern yet most parking areas are not well marked in some cities and towns. It’s a thorn in the flesh for the cash-strapped residents and this has created a haven of corruption for municipal police officers. We wish to call for lifestyle audits of these public officers. Maybe we can achieve our vision towards a corrupt free nation.”
Pursuant to the foregoing, ZNOART is calling upon all councils of Zimbabwe to conduct their affairs with impeccable professionalism and to abide by global best practices on good corporate governance.
It argued that all councils should be open to public scrutiny regarding how they spend the money paid from the sweat of the struggling residents. It added that all expenditures done should be scrutinised and, if not justified, as residents they will demand accountability from these local authorities.
Residents are facing difficulties in accessing full council minutes from Council Chambers which should be open for residents so that they can be able to scrutinize councils’ performance as much as service delivery is concerned.
In the spirit of national development, ZNOART said it is important that the parent Ministry of Local Government take measures to effect a “cleansing” process so as to sanitise the way councils discharge their mandate.
Where necessary, restitutive justice should be done through legal processes by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and the Zimbabwe Republic Police in all areas where reports of gross irregularities are raised.
To this end, ZNOART is in the process of conducting a robust research-based fact-finding mission that unpacks the way councils have aligned development processes to the nationally-prescribed blueprint of each local authority.
ZNOART is optimistic that once all irregularities affecting the current modus operandi in most councils are plugged, the nation will move boldly towards its coveted Middle Economy by 2030. This calls for a radical paradigm shift from the past scenario in which some council officials would personalise council property and, thus, abuse their privileged positions.
There is a need for a clean-up of all underperforming councils and to move towards transparency in land allocation and tendering processes.
In like terms, all local authorities should re-invigorate water supply and garbage collection, with a radical approach needed to address the issue of “unplanned” settlements which many residents see as a health time bomb. From towns and cities stretching from Limpopo to the Zambezi River, garbage is going for months uncollected, putting people’s health at risk.
“This is the growing urban pollution we always complain about. But our complaints are falling on deaf ears, meaning this urban pollution will continue to worsen. City councils are to blame for the crisis. There is a need to educate people on the causes of pollution and how to avert it and for government to intervene in the development towards waste management. The government has tried putting policies, but there is a lack of a monitoring mechanism by the local authorities .”
With pollution now rife in Zimbabwe’s towns and cities, residents are at the receiving end of dirty air which causes respiratory diseases and also dirty polluted water which causes ingestion diseases and climate change.
Environment laws need to be changed because the fines for environmental degradation are too little to be a deterrent. Heaps of uncollected garbage continue to pile, flies manifest, diseases break out, and when the rains fall, the garbage is washed away and blocks the drainage system.
Corruption has also fueled the pollution of Zimbabwe’s towns and cities. Garbage is not being collected because funds are being looted by corrupt council officials. There is no need to blame the citizens because there are no waste bins on the streets and refuse is not being collected. The whole blame should be apportioned to councils that have failed residents. They have no plan as far as refuse collection and waste management is concerned, putting the residents’ lives in danger.
ZNOART is urging all residents to take all their refuse and bins not collected in time to their nearest district office or any council office nearer to them in a bid to force them to execute their mandate of collecting refuse in homes. b
The organisation appreciates the introduction of private urban transporters by the government. Zupco buses which were there were being overwhelmed by the number of commuters. However, the residents’ representatives are equally shocked by the corruption which is happening in Zupco buses allegedly orchestrated by drivers and conductors.
“We believe government should keep monitoring this public transport enterprise if we are to realise a proper functioning transportation system. We are also demanding the removal of mishika shika on our roads since most of them have turned to be a law unto themselves, with most of them robbing and killing residents,” ZNOART added.