THE MDC-T has mandated its delegates attending the Sadc Summit in Victoria Falls next week to engage regional leaders and convince them to pressure President Robert Mugabe to immediately create provincial councils in accordance with the country’s new Constitution. PAIDAMOYO MUZULU SENIOR REPORTER
MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora yesterday said the party was concerned about the Zanu PF government’s reluctance to speedily implement devolution clauses that were enshrined in the Constitution.
“We will send a delegation headed by vice-president Thokozani Khupe to the summit to brief the Sadc leaders on developments after the polls. We are very concerned about the non-implementation of the new Constitution, for instance, on devolution,” Mwonzora said.
Section 270 of the Constitution says “a provincial or metropolitan council is responsible for the social and economic development of its province”, including among other things, “monitoring and evaluating the use of resources in its province”.
Constitutionally, the MDC-T is supposed to appoint chairpersons to head Harare and Bulawayo metropolitan councils where it won majority votes in last year’s elections.
Section 269 (1) says the two metropolitan councils should be chaired by mayors of Harare and Bulawayo respectively.
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The government is still to align more than 400 pieces of legislation to the new Constitution despite enjoying a more than two-thirds majority in Parliament. The opposition party has accused Zanu PF of deliberately avoiding amending local government laws to implement devolution so that it could continue controlling the cities.
Mugabe last year appointed Provincial Affairs ministers in areas where provincial councils were expected to take charge of administrative issues.