The Sunday Mail
Many local authorities, especially urban ones, fall far short when it comes to interacting with their residents, with councillors appearing in public, and then almost entirely on posters rather than in flesh, once every five years when they want to be re-elected or elected.
There is the legally required consultation on budget once a year, but this is done badly, with a few favoured people invited to comment, and even their input seems to be carefully collected and then filed away, unread.
President Mnangagwa brought up this point at the end of last week, when he was granted the freedom of the City of Gweru. At least, it is not lying dormant in the sense that it does things such as that major rebuild of the main bus terminus connected to a brand-new municipal market, sensibly planned to have vendors and micro-businesses actually next door to the terminus, so their customers are close.
There are a few similar urban councils. Victoria Falls, for example, is dominated by tourism industry players who rightly feel that they need to make sure they have input and services since, without tourism and hospitality, the city would simply die. But many, including Harare, seem to exist with the council and almost all the councillors living on a separate planet from their residents.
The President laid out the required steps. First, there must be a great deal more interaction between councillors and residents. Councillors get allowances, and these are not meant to be an income to live on, but rather a modest sum to cover expenses.
Those expenses for an active councillor will be significant, starting with transport costs as they go round their wards seeing what is actually going on, or not going on. Then a respectable councillor will have a communication bill, the costs of phone calls, costs of returning phone calls, the costs of setting up WhatsApp groups and buying their own data bundles so the messages do reach them and the general messages and replies get out to their ward residents. The allowance for such an active councillor will just cover these costs. The councillor’s time is free.
In the sad case of Harare, there are wards where there is some activity, but this is largely coming from the residents themselves and some very public-spirited individuals who co-ordinate efforts. So, we have groups preserving wetlands when the council tries to sell off the land; we have groups ready to photograph people dumping garbage and getting the Environmental Management Agency to fine the culprits; we have parent groups active in schools; and there are many more. About the only person who does not seem to be involved is the local councillor.
The councillors and officials themselves, as a set of criminal court cases now before the courts show, seem to be more active in how to get hold of council commercial stands for their own personal advantage, and regardless of whether the facts add up to a crime, those same facts do show what many would regard as a lack of integrity. The President was stressing in his list of qualities required by local councillors the critical ones of integrity and honesty. That is the other starting point, as well as treating the residents who elected them as important people.
Urban areas, with their range of services, have been running down over the last two decades. Some of this follows expansion of industry, commerce and housing without expansion of water supplies, sewage treatment, the road network, the clinic network and adding the required extra schools.
And here many urban authorities could follow the example of rural district councils, which are using devolution funds, their own resources, community input and whatever else they can get to add clinics and schools, and maintain the roads. One interesting point there is the close liaison between the communities and the councils, with the local councillor in each ward expected to be an active link between the two and be willing to take a lead. Perhaps, urban councillors could take a drive into rural areas and learn how that is done.
But along with the lack of expansion, and that should largely be paid for by the developers of new suburbs and new industrial areas, there has been a general running down of services. Harare’s main water treatment works, for example, are working at around half the capacity they had in the 1990s after the major expansion done by the first post-independence councils.
President Mnangagwa pinpointed one problem, the lack of billing and collection of rates and levies. As he made clear, budgeting is all very well but those budgets need to be implemented, otherwise they are just a thick bundle of paper that no one ever reads.
Interactive councils would be able to persuade people to pay by them delivering the services that people are supposed to pay for. We have all heard of people reluctant to pay for garbage removal, water supply and sewer connections when these do not exist, or exist in a very damaged condition.
Another point the President took up was the need for councils to use the resources of the institutions they host. Every provincial capital and metropolitan area has at least one State university and Harare has two.
Besides that, there are teachers’ colleges, polytechnics and other research and learning institutions. The councils do not have to travel long distances to consult for practical technical advice. The people who can offer it are among their residents, and are probably as fed up as their neighbours.
The President was not demanding instant miracles. But he, like the rest of the residents of urban councils, wants to see things getting significantly better each year, instead of significantly worse. As head of the central Government, he is ready to help, and already the central Government is helping with roads and will probably have to help get other services upgraded.
But that still requires efficient councils, with councillors and officials who seek integrity and honesty, and to get back to basics, councils in constant touch with their residents, working continually with communities, and councils able to collect all their own money. With that in place, then devolution funds, and other central Government aid — all these provide that useful extra that speeds up the upgrading of services, rather than substituting for the required efforts.
Interaction: Missing link in local authorities
The Sunday Mail
Many local authorities, especially urban ones, fall far short when it comes to interacting with their residents, with councillors appearing in public, and then almost entirely on posters rather than in flesh, once every five years when they want to be re-elected or elected.
There is the legally required consultation on budget once a year, but this is done badly, with a few favoured people invited to comment, and even their input seems to be carefully collected and then filed away, unread.
President Mnangagwa brought up this point at the end of last week, when he was granted the freedom of the City of Gweru. At least, it is not lying dormant in the sense that it does things such as that major rebuild of the main bus terminus connected to a brand-new municipal market, sensibly planned to have vendors and micro-businesses actually next door to the terminus, so their customers are close.
There are a few similar urban councils. Victoria Falls, for example, is dominated by tourism industry players who rightly feel that they need to make sure they have input and services since, without tourism and hospitality, the city would simply die. But many, including Harare, seem to exist with the council and almost all the councillors living on a separate planet from their residents.
The President laid out the required steps. First, there must be a great deal more interaction between councillors and residents. Councillors get allowances, and these are not meant to be an income to live on, but rather a modest sum to cover expenses.
Those expenses for an active councillor will be significant, starting with transport costs as they go round their wards seeing what is actually going on, or not going on. Then a respectable councillor will have a communication bill, the costs of phone calls, costs of returning phone calls, the costs of setting up WhatsApp groups and buying their own data bundles so the messages do reach them and the general messages and replies get out to their ward residents. The allowance for such an active councillor will just cover these costs. The councillor’s time is free.
In the sad case of Harare, there are wards where there is some activity, but this is largely coming from the residents themselves and some very public-spirited individuals who co-ordinate efforts. So, we have groups preserving wetlands when the council tries to sell off the land; we have groups ready to photograph people dumping garbage and getting the Environmental Management Agency to fine the culprits; we have parent groups active in schools; and there are many more. About the only person who does not seem to be involved is the local councillor.
The councillors and officials themselves, as a set of criminal court cases now before the courts show, seem to be more active in how to get hold of council commercial stands for their own personal advantage, and regardless of whether the facts add up to a crime, those same facts do show what many would regard as a lack of integrity. The President was stressing in his list of qualities required by local councillors the critical ones of integrity and honesty. That is the other starting point, as well as treating the residents who elected them as important people.
Urban areas, with their range of services, have been running down over the last two decades. Some of this follows expansion of industry, commerce and housing without expansion of water supplies, sewage treatment, the road network, the clinic network and adding the required extra schools.
And here many urban authorities could follow the example of rural district councils, which are using devolution funds, their own resources, community input and whatever else they can get to add clinics and schools, and maintain the roads. One interesting point there is the close liaison between the communities and the councils, with the local councillor in each ward expected to be an active link between the two and be willing to take a lead. Perhaps, urban councillors could take a drive into rural areas and learn how that is done.
But along with the lack of expansion, and that should largely be paid for by the developers of new suburbs and new industrial areas, there has been a general running down of services. Harare’s main water treatment works, for example, are working at around half the capacity they had in the 1990s after the major expansion done by the first post-independence councils.
President Mnangagwa pinpointed one problem, the lack of billing and collection of rates and levies. As he made clear, budgeting is all very well but those budgets need to be implemented, otherwise they are just a thick bundle of paper that no one ever reads.
Interactive councils would be able to persuade people to pay by them delivering the services that people are supposed to pay for. We have all heard of people reluctant to pay for garbage removal, water supply and sewer connections when these do not exist, or exist in a very damaged condition.
Another point the President took up was the need for councils to use the resources of the institutions they host. Every provincial capital and metropolitan area has at least one State university and Harare has two.
Besides that, there are teachers’ colleges, polytechnics and other research and learning institutions. The councils do not have to travel long distances to consult for practical technical advice. The people who can offer it are among their residents, and are probably as fed up as their neighbours.
The President was not demanding instant miracles. But he, like the rest of the residents of urban councils, wants to see things getting significantly better each year, instead of significantly worse. As head of the central Government, he is ready to help, and already the central Government is helping with roads and will probably have to help get other services upgraded.
But that still requires efficient councils, with councillors and officials who seek integrity and honesty, and to get back to basics, councils in constant touch with their residents, working continually with communities, and councils able to collect all their own money. With that in place, then devolution funds, and other central Government aid — all these provide that useful extra that speeds up the upgrading of services, rather than substituting for the required efforts.
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