Local authorities call for removal of outdated colonial laws

GOVERNMENT has been challenged to speed up the harmonisation of  various pieces of legislation to, among other things, remodel local authorities in line with modern international trends.

This also comes amid calls for the country's institutions of higher learning to invest in research that would result in the remodelling of local authorities in line with international standards.

Speaking during the inaugural national economic policy dialogue session organised by the Zimbabwe Institute of Strategic Thinking (ZIST) in Victoria Falls yesterday, participants said pieces of legislation that govern local authorities are now outdated and no longer serve the interests of modern towns and cities.

They called for the crafting of a devolution framework to help in the implementation of the Devolution Agenda being spearheaded by the Second Republic to develop communities around the country.

Participants who were drawn from academia, financial experts, Government, and private sector said some pieces of legislation like the Regional Town Planning Act were now archaic and called for a single legislative framework for local authorities.

National University of Science and Technology (Nust) Vice Chancellor Professor Mqhele Dlodlo said a local government model where local authorities  are accountable to ratepayers is ideal.

"The model that seems to have worked for local authorities is the one where they are regarded as being in a local area managing resources for the community and accountable to ratepayers.

"Something started going wrong when we moved to centralisation resulting in the Bambazonke mentality where everything is centred in the capital city," he said.

"The President declared the Devolution agenda as a key driver of local development and this simply means returning power to ratepayers of any municipality or rural district council so that ratepayers can control the way their local authority is run and services delivered. We need to have a Devolution Act."

Harare mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume said the present local authorities' model is a colonial replica and implored tertiary institutions to lead the reform process through research.