News in Depth: Zimbabwe urban dwellers bear the brunt of political fights

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Uncollected garbage

True to the African proverb, — when elephants fight the grass suffers —   people across Zimbabwe are bearing the brunt of falling service delivery as the fight between the Zanu PF and the opposition to control local authorities takes its toll. 

Uncollected garbage in residential areas and the central business district (CBD) in cities and towns remain the order of the day with local authorities citing lack of funds to deliver the service. 

Residents have to endure erratic water supplies going for months without running water while motorists struggle to navigate pothole-infested roads.

The rampant parcelling out of land through Zanu PF-linked land barons has resulted in the destruction of wetlands which now threatens the cities’ very existence.

Cities and towns have recorded recurrent outbreaks of cholera and other water borne diseases at a time local authorities are battling critical staff shortages.

While ordinary citizens struggle with poor service delivery, policy makers continue to enjoy the thrill of driving in top-of-the range vehicles in the leafy residential suburbs where they have sunk boreholes and installed solar power.

Government has deliberately delayed the release of devolution funds to opposition-led councils in what has been viewed as a strategy to sabotage them.

In his address of this years’ first full council meeting on Monday, MDC Alliance Bulawayo mayor Solomon Mguni lashed out at the government for deliberately withholding devolution funds due to the council to stifle service delivery.

“They have taken every opportunity to twist facts and doctor them to their political advantage,” Mguni said.

“One senior politician from Matabeleland North province is being quoted in a leading Sunday newspaper describing Bulawayo as having turned into a growth point.

“This house must agree with this senior Matabeleland politician and remind him that the collapse of the city's road network in 2021 and 2022 is attributed to the failure of the central government's emergency road rehabilitation programme (ERRP).”

Zanu PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu told a state weekly that the CCC-led council has turned Bulawayo into a growth point with poor roads and non-existent service delivery.

Mguni said the CCC-led council could not be blamed as he had on several occasions called on government to abandon ERRP.

“I call upon this house across the political divide to speak with one voice as we call upon the central government to disband ERRP which has had a deleterious effect on the city's maintenance road efforts,” Mguni said.

“The year 2021/2022 saw the erratic or non-disbursement of allocated Zinara funds; some of which were diverted towards the government's ERRP programmes.

“Instead of being an active player, government must capitalise local authorities to finance their own road maintenance units in the spirit of devolution.”

Government launched ERRP in 2021 after President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the country’s roads a national disaster.

Under ERRP, the government is targeting to rehabilitate 10 000km of roads countrywide but mainly urban and trunk roads, ignoring the neglected gravel roads in rural areas, particularly deep situated areas.

In Bulawayo, government took over 18 roads for rehabilitation under the department of roads and some private contractors under the ministry of Transport. But there has been zero progress to date with poor workmanship in some areas, Mguni said.

“We then have three of the aforesaid 18 roads that have been partially done, but the quality of the work done is questionable,” Mguni said. “Fife Street 2,7km is only 50% done. Nketa Drive 2,1km is said to be 50% but a section of the road is bleeding in Mpopoma near Hyde Park road.  CMED has tried to rectify the problem without success. 12th Avenue extension is said to be 60% done.”

The Zanu PF-led government has blamed the opposition-run councils for poor service delivery and has been ‘quick’ to intervene with projects funded by taxpayers' money to claim credit and woo votes.

As the water crisis worsened in cities and towns, government launched the ‘Presidential borehole drilling scheme’, a programme meant to drill boreholes in high density suburbs to ease water shortages.

Government also proposed to take over council clinics to “rescue” them from failure to pay the nurses.

Opposition councillors have complained of excessive interference and imposition of tenders and projects that are bleeding the already cash-strapped local authorities.

Last year, the Local Government ministry torched a storm  after it blocked the City of Harare from suspending a controversial 30-year waste management deal between a Netherlands-based company, Geogenix BV which is fronted by  controversial businessman, Delish Nguwaya and the local authority.

The deal would see the company pocketing over US$240 million at US$22 000 a day from council for waste deliveries which the city fathers described as insane before refusing to honour the contract.

Government took over the agreement with the company ostensibly because it was a national project, pledging to pay the company from Harare’s share of devolution funds.

Last year, Local Government minister July Moyo forced a fire tender deal on local authorities without going to tender. The fire tenders were to be imported from Belarus at a highly inflated cost of over US$400 000 each against a market price of US$60 000 each.

Moyo, who has been at the centre of the controversial deals, was reported to have diverted devolution funds towards the purchase of the expensive fire tenders despite the price discrepancy.

Local Government ministry secretary, Zvinechimwe Churu wrote to all councils advising them that government was acquiring the fire tenders on their behalf at a cost of US$464 296 each.

Human rights lawyers demanded to see copies of the Belarus agreement amid fears of corruption as critics alleged the cost could have been inflated. Indications were that the fire tenders in question cost around US$30 000 each in countries like China.

Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume said: "We have an issue where the revenue streams to do with services delivery have been stifled and channelled elsewhere. 

“Devolution funds are being held by the government and are being prioritised for projects that are imposed on us. Another major challenge is that all council senior executives  are appointed by the Minister,  a situation that results in serious interferences."

Former CCC Chitungwiza mayor Lovemore Maiko said: “The relationship between the central (government) and local (government) has not been rosy.

“There seems to be competition but central government must allow local authorities to function since they would have been given the mandate to govern and run the affairs of cities and towns by the people.”

CCC leader Nelson Chamisa said Zanu PF politics of intolerance has crippled service delivery in Zimbabwe.

“There has actually been a shared government since 1999 with Zanu PF controlling central government and opposition being voted for, but denied control of towns and cities. This has undermined service delivery,” Chamisa said.

“If there was a good working relationship, our cities and towns would have been somewhere in implementing reforms, restructuring and doing what has to be done.

“But now you find that the minister of Local Government is almost like a super mayor of all cities. That is a governance issue that needs to be dealt with. There has to be reforms and there is need to restore the executive mayor.”

The Constitution, which was adopted in 2013, provides for the devolution of power from Harare to the country’s provinces but government has been dragging its feet in coming up with an enabling act.

Under devolution, councils are supposed to receive devolution funds from Central government to finance capital projects.

Finance minister Mthuli Ncube allocated $195.5 billion for devolution this year, up from $16.7 billion in 2021.

“We must give authority and autonomy to local authorities, real autonomy and not these mysterious directions, instructions that are bordering on corruption from the central government,” Chamisa said.

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