THE main opposition MDC-T yesterday launched a local governance blueprint to guide its councillors leading various local authorities across the country.
By Everson Mushava
The blueprint — titled Smart City Campaign — was launched in Harare by MDC-T secretary for local government Eddie Cross, who said the document would address the ever-worsening challenges of poor service delivery.
Cross said the blueprint also addressed issues of labour costs, improvement of urban infrastructure, urban expansion, and establishment of ward development centres and ward offices for councillors, formalisation of the informal housing co-operatives and businesses, as well as establishment of a vibrant water management system.
“We are on the edge of a new era in Africa where cities will dominate our lives and how the cities are managed will be a real issue,” Cross said.
“As the MDC, we have come up with a model of how all local councils will operate.”
Cross said councils faced a myriad of challenges such as political interference, withdrawal of streams of revenue, unplanned settlements and inflated salary schedules. He said the blueprint suggested the challenges can be overcome by coming up with smart cities.
He said the party would tap into the information technology revolution to build smart cities where residents would manage their water, electricity consumption as well as communication channels to ensure timely attention to their complaints.
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Cross said all MDC-T-led-councils would embark on construction of dams to ensure availability of water to residents while low income households would get water for free. The party would also renegotiate salaries to ensure service delivery was prioritised.
“But unfortunately, council managers appointed directly by the (Local Government) ministry have tried to hide the salary schedules, especially for Harare. We later got the schedules, and it is sad that for the year 2014, about $138 million of council revenue went to salaries, of which $111 million were basic salaries and the rest was going to allowances,” he said.
The Bulawayo South MP said they will seek to limit interference by the Local Government ministry in council activities and regularise land ownership.
He applauded Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere for his strong position against land barons, but warned that the Zanu PF minister might not have them arrested because most of them were beneficiaries of the ruling party’s patronage system.
