Hwange councillors upbeat about plan

Hwange councillors are optimistic that full implementation of the local authority’s five-year strategic plan will boost development in the coal mining town as well as see residents receiving improved services.

Late last year, Hwange local board management, workers representatives, councillors and various interested parties gathered to review the council's 2021 to 2025 strategic plan.

The review of the strategic plan was in line with a call from the Local Government ministry for local authorities to review their blueprints for inputting on their 2024 budgets.

Hwange local board ward 5 councillor Prince Shava said a plus for the council’s strategic plan was that it had buy-in from various stakeholders including residents.

"I would like to say that our strategic plan fully caters for the improvement of our council and meets the needs of our residents," Shava said.

He, however, said there was need to guard against barriers that might lead to strategy implementation failure.

"There are challenges that we are facing from poor performance, when it comes to financing our strategic plan over the years,” Shava said.

“Enough resources should be made available for the implementation effort.

"We have to focus on identifying accomplishments and outstanding programmes projects while at the same time addressing the challenges we are facing.”

He said the blueprint was also in line with the country’s National Development Strategy 1.

"We also need to implement the integrated resultsbased management system so that we have a clear analysis of every department in our organisation," Shava added.

Ward 6 councillor Mlungisi Zhanero said the blueprint must drive development in the coal mining town.

"I think our strategic plan was implemented in such a way that it fully spearheads development in our area of jurisdiction,” Zhanero said.

“We, however, have to make sure that we undertake all the developmental projects stated in our plan such as construction of a new primary school because the ones we have can no longer sustain the ever-growing number of learners."