Story by Tafara Chikumira
THE recently launched local authorities blueprint has received buy-in from urban councils in the Midlands province which have started addressing key service delivery challenges in line with the government’s vision of meeting the needs of the citizenry.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has launched the local authorities blueprint, which guides their operations with a particular focus on improving service delivery.
The move seems to be paying off with a survey carried out by the ZBC news in the Midlands province proving that local authorities have started to pull their sleeves in terms of service delivery.
Some of the major roads in the Kwekwe Central Business District are now receiving attention, while in Mvuma and Gokwe, the local authorities have also upped their game in garbage collection and other services.
In Gweru, the roads in the CBD are also receiving attention with the city now having four functional traffic lights after going for years without such services.
“As residents, we want to thank the actions by our President and our Minister of State which have seen these city fathers spring to action. We used to experience some serious accidents, especially along the Harare-Bulawayo highway but since our minister came on board, we now have traffic lights that have minimised such accidents,” said a resident.
Another said, “It is indeed changing and we need to give credit where it is due. It only shows that people can sleep on duty if they decide to and with good leadership they can wake up and start doing their jobs. The change is clear and this is indeed commendable.”
The Gweru City Council attributed the current success to collaborative efforts between the local authority and central government.
“One thing people need to understand is that we are part of the government. If we go it alone, we are bound not to perform as expected. However, as you can see we have managed to achieve this in a short space of time. We are also getting help from the CMED. We are doing this in a phased approach and we hope to get there,” said Gweru Mayor, Councillor Martin Chivoko
For years, opposition-led local authorities have come under the spotlight for poor service delivery, prompting the government to come up with the local authorities’ blueprint which resonates with the government’s vision of an upper middle-income society by 2030.
