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Devolution: Competing for development

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By Fidelis Manyange

ZIMBABWE’s solution to achieving Vision 2030 will not necessarily be driven and achieved by central Government alone, but will be pushed by a herdboy from rural Matenha Village in Murehwa District, or by a youthful mother who fetches water several kilometres from her homestead in the villages of Bulilima District. 

Memories of abandoned cases of misappropriation of constituency development funds by legislators and their accomplices are well recorded and still fresh in the minds of the people. 

Citizens’ dreams of better communities had been on the verge of becoming a reality, only to be frustrated by acts of greed and selfishness. 

The central Government may have initiated noble programmes for upliftment of remote communities, but somehow lacked requisite follow-ups and appropriate modalities on the usage of funds which it disbursed to local leadership. 

For such ills to go unchecked, it is usually because our fellow citizens have been made to believe they are slaves to political mastery that prevails in their respective communities, and that there has not been a genuine voice for the defence of powerless citizens. 

They do not know that the funds were not sourced by their House of Assembly members as they are always made to believe. 

Government handouts and donations from NGOs and international aid agencies are all believed to be coming from House of Assembly members in many rural communities. 

We need to put an end to such practices and get the local leaderships to start working for the people.

Rural district councils (RDCs) and legislators must be accountable in areas of governance and development of societies. 

In most cases, they have been looking up to the Government and NGOs for development programmes, yet they are the very people supposed to be driving the agenda at local levels. 

It defies logic to learn that there are communities that have no access to clean water in these modern times. 

We cannot expect the community to share a borehole with a health facility. 

It poses risk to the patients and the community as a whole. 

A free gift in the form of natural sun goes to waste instead of converting the heat into solar energy for health facilities, schools, business centres and households. 

Imagine the mentality of waiting for the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to look for funds to install electricity in rural areas, which is even in short supply in the cities or on the national grid itself. 

We import electricity and are even indebted to suppliers, yet we have local engineers who could do well finding alternatives to energy supplies. 

Scholars in rural areas are deprived of their right to education, especially in the current COVID 19-induced lockdowns where lessons are conducted online. 

All blame goes to local leadership that lack innovative stamina to equip schools with necessary facilities to afford students the required services.

Mining activities must be regulated in such a way that there is order, and that the returns directly benefit the areas which are endowed with such natural resources. 

Currently, there is haphazard digging which threatens to destroy the environment and road infrastructure in many areas. 

Government agencies at local levels do not seem to be competent enough for duty in these areas, or is it complacency or negligence. 

It is, therefore, imperative for citizens to wake up and take to task those who occupy public offices. 

Be it at provincial or district levels, citizens must monitor and advocate transparency and efficiency in terms of service delivery. 

Each province must always aim to be at the top in terms of development. 

Devolution must be viewed as an opportunity to excel in service delivery and development initiatives and Government should always be there to oversee performance in each province. Devolution must be seen as an opportunity to get all citizens to participate in processes of nation building.

Some of the challenges, however, which have been encountered by patriotic citizens in various areas have been resisted by local leadership, especially politicians as they fear independent eyes in their dealings. 

They are quick to label criticism as political ambition or dissent. 

Such behaviour and attitude have largely caused lagging behind in many areas that yearn for development. 

Natural resources and agricultural produce have vast potential of giving economic relief to local citizens and their respective communities, but successive leaderships have not really been innovative at all over the years to attract or establish beneficiation factories to process fruits, farm produce, minerals or timber which are usually extracted and sent away in their raw forms. 

There is, indeed, huge potential for growth if competence is really given a chance.

Each province in Zimbabwe has natural and human resources that can change the plight of our nation as a whole. 

We must, therefore, take advantage of those resources and build the Zimbabwe we yearn for. 

Citizens must be allowed to freely participate in the building of the nation and hold leadership accountable in order to enhance transparency and efficiency. 

So, citizens, let us go back and take charge of development processes of our respective home areas which are somehow neglected by those who just sit in office to get a monthly deposit into their accounts. 

They call it work, we call it home!

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