Devolution of power to begin in new year

THE Provincial and Metropolitan Councils created by the new Constitution are expected to be established early next year after the completion of the draft Bill to regulate their operations.

This was revealed by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Killian Mpingo, when he appeared together with officials from his ministry before a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee yesterday.

"For us to activate the Provincial Councils, we need to put in place an elaborate legal definition that will regulate their staff, the level of their quorum, the minimum number of meetings they will have, the conditions of service and issues of misconduct.

"I am happy to inform you that we are through with the write up of the Bill and what we need to do is to get it through for consideration by Cabinet and once the Cabinet is through with the Bill, it will go to the Attorney General to ensure that its wording is consistent with the letter and spirit of the constitution.

"After that it will then come to Parliament and we hope you will support it so that we should be able to have these (Provincial Councils) by early next year," Mpingo said while appearing before Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Committee.

He added that the Bill also provided for how they would relate to other offices of local governance like the Offices of the Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs among others.

The Provincial and Metropolitan Councils were established by the new Constitution as part of the devolution of power and will be responsible for among other things, the social and economic development of their respective provinces, co-ordinating and implementing governmental programmes in its province among other things.

The constitution, however, requires that an Act of Parliament must provide for the establishment of structure and staff of provincial and metropolitan councils and the manner in which they exercise their functions.

Harare and Bulawayo will have Metropolitan Councils, while the remaining eight provinces will have Provincial Councils.

The Metropolitan Councils will be chaired by the respective mayors of Harare and Bulawayo and will comprise of all members of the National Assembly from that province and the six women members and the six senators. The chairperson of a Provincial Council will be elected by the full council but the party that obtained the most National Assembly seats in that province nominates at least two qualified candidates, from which the full council chooses one.

If the parties tie on the number of seats, then the one with the most votes provide the candidates.

The other members of the Provincial Council include the senators elected from the province concerned, the two senator chiefs elected from the province concerned, the president and deputy president of the National Council of Chiefs, where their areas fall within the province concerned.

All the members of the National Assembly whose constituencies fall within the province concerned, the women Members of the National Assembly, the mayors and chairpersons by whatever title they are called, of all urban and rural local authorities in the province concerned and 10 people selected by a system of proportional representation will also be part of the council.