BULAWAYO mayor, Martin Moyo, blamed poor service delivery in the city on government’s refusal to implement devolution of power, which he said would have allowed the local authority to use locally-available resources without seeking authority from central government.
BY NIZBERT MOYO
“As a local authority, we should be allowed to advertise jobs, we cannot employ without authority from Harare. There is too much consultation, which I feel is unnecessary. If you are devolved the decision depends on you,’’ he told Southern Eye yesterday.
“We have a depleted staff, we wanted to employ the directors of housing and community services and health services department at the same time, when we employed the town clerk, but we were only given a go-ahead to employ the town clerk. Now interviews have been done and we are in the process of filling the vacancies,’’ he said.
The mayor said he preferred devolution, as it allowed people to run their operations without seeking authority from central government.
The principle of devolution of power was enshrined in the new Constitution adopted in 2013, as one of the country’s founding values, but the Zanu PF government has been reluctant to implement it, describing the concept as Western and opposition driven.
Devolution of power proposed to give powers of local governance to the people and enhance their participation in the exercise of the powers of the State and in making decisions affecting them, promote democratic, effective, transparent, accountable and coherent government of Zimbabwe, preserve and foster the peace, national unity and indivisibility of Zimbabwe and recognise the right of communities to manage their own affairs and to further their development.
It also proposes to ensure the equitable sharing of local and national resources, transfer responsibilities and resources from the national government in order to establish a sound financial base for each provincial and metropolitan council and local authority.
