Harare govt should decentralise services

GOVERNMENT should reconsider its decision to nationalise electricity generation and vehicle licensing which has resulted in poor service delivery in rural and urban councils, a councillor has said.

Bulawayo ward 25 councillor Aleck Ndlovu told NewsDay, that councils' licensing departments had been rendered useless by the decision.For example, Ndlovu said, the Bulawayo City Council licensing department could have been generating funds for the local authority with the revenue sourced through the system going to projects such as road maintenance.

"Never in a lifetime have we seen such decay in service delivery in this city. The challenge is that the government has nationalised power generation to form Zimbabwe Power Company or Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority.

"We had our own power station which generated enough power for our industries. This is no longer the case. We had our own car licensing department which generated enough revenue for our road maintenance and water drainage system.

"The government decided to amend the laws and replaced it with the National Roads Administration which is not releasing enough funds for our road rehabilitation programme," he said.

Ndlovu said roads in Bulawayo had suffered years of neglect.

Bulawayo provincial affairs director for co-ordination Boetsoarelo Noko said she needed time to consult the relevant departments.