Minister bemoans rot in local authorities

LOCAL Government and Public Works minister Daniel Garwe has flagged mismanagement in local authorities in the country whose positions are mainly held in acting capacity, calling for an immediate meeting to resolve the matter Garwe revealed this during a meeting he held with City of Harare councillors and executives on Monday this week The councillors had requested the ministry’s help in appointing substantive executives In response, Garwe said the main reason for having personnel in acting positions was poor management

“Let us start it from there It is a reflection of us; there is something about us that we are not doing right We have meetings with the local board regularly and some of the issues they raise are that local authorities do not follow all procedures when conducting interviews and your recommendations are often thrown away and there is no harm, so let’s follow laid-down procedures,” he said Garwe said the executives in acting positions were benefiting

“Some acting roles are born out of personal interest that in the morning, let’s look for Garwe to act as a committee chairman and that a certain committee will meet tomorrow and make a decision and that decision will then be referred to the full council and passed as a resolution,” he said “It is a reflection of how we are managing the affairs of the city ourselves, but we need to sit down ourselves and the ministry and there are some areas we have to be tough on.”

Garwe called on officials from his ministry to meet with council management and Harare mayor Jacob Mafume to come up with a solution to the matter He said the ministry expected nothing short of world-class service delivery from the City of Harare “In light of that, I would, therefore, want to encourage Harare City councillors and management to ensure that all our initiatives, our policies, our by-laws and resolutions are reflective of our promise of becoming an upper-middle-income society, empowering not just the elite but all citizens,” Garwe said

He also said Harare by-laws were outdated and needed to be reviewed “We are in the process of amending the Urban Town Act and we are also encouraged to start working on new by-laws We do not want to have reviewed by-laws with the same old problems that are not covered by our laws and some companies are coming with new technology that can build a house overnight and with the old by-laws, we do not know how to act and approve those developments,” he said Garwe last month decried the decay in local authorities, citing poor governance

He was speaking during the handover of the commission of inquiry into the City of Harare affairs since 2017 report to President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Source: NewsDay Zimbabwe