News / Press Release
MDC-T councillors pledge support to Tsvangirai
26 Jun 2014 at 17:28hrs | Views
The MDC National leadership today met with all Councillors elected on the MDC ticket in which 407 out of 442 councillors attended at Harvest House.
The meeting was meant to give an opportunity to both elected councillors and the party leadership to interact and to receive first-hand information on successes and challenges met in providing effective 'Service Delivery' to communities.
The meeting noted that the provincial and local government system in Zimbabwe has suffered from extensive politicization and lack of quality service delivery stemming from over-centralisation of power by the local government ministry and uneven resource allocation and development.
The meeting noted with concern that government is intentionally not implementing devolution as outlined in the new constitution. The essence of devolution is giving power to the people to make decisions at local level but Zanu-PF is not willing to implement it.
The Councillors bemoaned Chombo's populist directive to cancel debts was aimed at ensuring that MDC local authorities fail to deliver. The meeting resolved to come up with innovative ways to augment funding of services.
The meeting noted that government arms are not paying rates to Council resulting in councils failing to have enough revenue for service delivery. Government owe councils millions of dollars. Of more concern is that ZINARA is collecting money from road users and none of it is being remitted to Local Authorities to repair roads.
The meeting noted the heavy-handed unprofessional interference of Chombo and that he was sabotaging service delivery in Local authorities and is protecting corrupt officials in local authorities. The Councillors undertook to cultivate incorruptible practices in their corporate governance. They also undertook to uphold values of the party which are transparency, just, non -corrupt and people-involving in the running of councils.
The leadership of the party assured the councillors that it will do its best to address all challenges raised by the councillors in the best way possible. The councillors pledged to adhere to the party policies and values and pledged to stand solidly behind the party leadership led by President Morgan Tsvangirai.
I thank you
The meeting was meant to give an opportunity to both elected councillors and the party leadership to interact and to receive first-hand information on successes and challenges met in providing effective 'Service Delivery' to communities.
The meeting noted that the provincial and local government system in Zimbabwe has suffered from extensive politicization and lack of quality service delivery stemming from over-centralisation of power by the local government ministry and uneven resource allocation and development.
The meeting noted with concern that government is intentionally not implementing devolution as outlined in the new constitution. The essence of devolution is giving power to the people to make decisions at local level but Zanu-PF is not willing to implement it.
The Councillors bemoaned Chombo's populist directive to cancel debts was aimed at ensuring that MDC local authorities fail to deliver. The meeting resolved to come up with innovative ways to augment funding of services.
The meeting noted that government arms are not paying rates to Council resulting in councils failing to have enough revenue for service delivery. Government owe councils millions of dollars. Of more concern is that ZINARA is collecting money from road users and none of it is being remitted to Local Authorities to repair roads.
The meeting noted the heavy-handed unprofessional interference of Chombo and that he was sabotaging service delivery in Local authorities and is protecting corrupt officials in local authorities. The Councillors undertook to cultivate incorruptible practices in their corporate governance. They also undertook to uphold values of the party which are transparency, just, non -corrupt and people-involving in the running of councils.
The leadership of the party assured the councillors that it will do its best to address all challenges raised by the councillors in the best way possible. The councillors pledged to adhere to the party policies and values and pledged to stand solidly behind the party leadership led by President Morgan Tsvangirai.
I thank you
Source - Blessing Chebundo Secretary for Local Government
