Source: Councils must mimic govt on austerity – DailyNews Live
STAFF WRITER 4 October 2018
HARARE – Most urban councils countrywide are holding pre-budget
consultations with key stakeholders in their respective areas. These are
expected to give a general direction to the budgets the local authorities
are likely to come up with.
However, given the position on austerity the President Emmerson
Mnangagwa-led government has laid out, it is important for local
authorities – most of whom have often been found wanting in as far as
balancing service delivery and revenue collection – to steer away from
current trends where recurrent expenditure in the form of salaries and
perks consume the greatest chunk of revenue collected.
Not only have councils employed heavily in the past with successive local
authorities over-employing as they try to “pay” residents for voting them
in, but executives have also been guilty of paying themselves very high
salaries and perks at the expense of service delivery.
Harare – which is the country’s capital and should obviously be exemplary
– has been battling a cholera outbreak that has so far claimed the lives
of around 50 people.
Although Glen View and Budiriro have been the epi-centre of the current
outbreak, the highly-infectious diarrheal disease has already spread to
other parts of the country.
The consumption of contaminated water in Glen View and Budiriro reportedly
caused the current outbreak. Supply of safe water remains the prerogative
of local authorities and as such, when epidemics like this one occur, the
blame will squarely fall on the shoulders of councils whose priorities are
largely skewed.
Residents must demand that councils provide adequate services. Besides
water supply, there are other areas like sewer bursts over which several
urban councils have been criticised.
As they formulate their budgets, there is need to look at these pertinent
issues of water supply and sewer as well as refuse disposal because they
remain central to the capacity of councils to contain disease outbreaks.
Central government has announced the need for austerity implying that
councils do serious self-introspection aimed at sanitising their
operations.
There is no need for Zimbabweans to be dying of Stone Age afflictions like
cholera in this day and age when all that is needed is to revamp existing
water and sewer infrastructure. With this in mind, they should approach
central government with minds that are clear on why they are in office.
The bulk of money collected must be channelled towards service delivery,
not the pockets of executives.
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