Devolution edges closer
GOVERNMENT will prioritise amending Section 268 of the National Constitution before promulgating statutory laws outlining the establishment of provincial and metropolitan Councils, The Sunday Mail has established.
The Office of the President and Cabinet has since directed an inter-ministerial committee responsible for drafting the devolution and decentralisation law to immediately craft amendments to the Constitution before the statutory laws can be considered.
Already, the committee has completed a layman draft of the provincial and metropolitan Councils Bill, which has been submitted to the Attorney General’s office for fine tuning.
Justice, Parliamentary and Legal Affairs secretary Mrs Virginia Mabhiza told The Sunday Mail last week that Government was amending the Constitution, to lay the foundations for the establishment of Provincial and Metropolitan councils.
In its current form, Section 268 of the Constitution provides a slot for legislators in the councils, a position that is at variance with the Government’s thinking.
Authorities argue that the inclusion of legislators in the provincial and metropolitan councils creates conflict of interest since Parliament is supposed to hold oversight over the councils.
Mrs Mabhiza said the envisaged constitutional amendments will witness the provision on Parliamentarians sitting in provincial council being removed
“I believe the inter-ministerial committee responsible for drafting the Provincial and Metropolitan Councils bill has completed drafting the layman’s Bill which has now been taken to the Attorney Generals drafting department,” she said.
“We are first going to make an amendment to the chapter that deals with establishment of Provincial Councils in the Constitution.
“We have an instruction from the Office of the President and Cabinet directing us that the Constitutional amendment should go through first then the subsidiary law will have to be drawn from what the constitutions says.
“I am not privy to the latest developments since I am on leave but I understand that the Constitutional amendment has to go through first.”
The devolution framework will be similarly modelled to China’s provinces, which are economic centres that compute their own GDP data for competitiveness purposes.
Government intends to make Harare Metropolitan province the country’s ICT nerve centre, while Bulawayo Metropolitan will be the country’s industrial hub.
Manicaland province, on the other hand, will be turned into the diamond beneficiation centre, with Midlands the iron and steel value-chain beneficiation centre.
Government will also cede significant administrative, political, market and fiscal power to provinces, allowing provinces to craft provincial economic development master plans that feed into the national agenda.
Provincial and metropolitan councils will be required to draft and adopt Regional Investment and Development Master Plans, which derive from the National Investment and Development Master Plan.
Government has allocated US$310 million for the operationalisation of devolution in the 2019 national budget.
THE new Constitution of Zimbabwe requires that power be devolved from the highest levels to the lower levels of governance. This is envisaged to bring the muchneeded development to local areas. In fact, the Constitution prescribes that five percent of the national Budget is supposed to be channelled to various local authorities (in the country’s 10 provinces).
A lot has been said and written about devolution.
But how many Zimbabweans understand what devolution is? And will the budgeted resources actually translate to development in local areas?
Further, is devolution, as proposed in the Constitution of Zimbabwe, practical and beneficial?
This write-up uses the example of one tier that is created through devolution - the provincial metropolitan councils - to argue that in its current form as proposed in the Constitution, the structure is seemingly bloated and will arguably chew a significant amount of the proposed budget.
However, devolution of governance and functions brings hope that many services that have traditionally been sought from Harare and Bulawayo can now be made readily available in local areas.
People in outlying areas have always complained about seeking important documents such as licences, title deeds, passports and birth certificates from faraway places.
These, they hope, will now be within convenient reach.
Whilst these are important expectations, there are other aspects of the constitutional proposals that may end up contradicting existing roles and increasing the cost of governance.
The decentralisation of some of these key services is no-doubt beneficial to residents in many areas.
It, however, has to be carefully managed and implemented so that the costs are minimised and the benefits optimised.
To help unpack devolution, I will make references to specific clauses of the Constitution focusing on the Harare metropolitan province.
In the founding values of the Constitution, Section 3 (l) states that one of the key tenets of Zimbabwe is “devolution and decentralisation of Governmental power and functions”.
The location of devolution in the founding values is important.
It speaks to the emphasis with which the nation places in devolution. And this is as it should be. Our neighbours in South Africa are a good example of how devolution helps empower provinces.
As part of the devolution, the Constitution outlines new institutions to be created.
One important one is the provincial metropolitan councils for Harare and Bulawayo.
Section 269 of the Constitution provides the composition of Metropolitan councils, which, in essence, will be made up of all Members of the House of Assembly, mayors, chairpersons and deputies of council committees, women Members of Parliament, and senators under the chairmanship of the Mayor of the largest council.
Remember this is over and above the individual councils in the metropolitan area.
Using the example of Harare, there will still be a fully-fledged Harare City Council, Chitungwiza Municipality and any other council that falls within the defined geographical area of Harare metropolitan province.
Bringing together members of the metropolitan council will come at a huge expense.
This presents a challenge in financing this entity.
The Constitution, however, partly provides a solution to financing the activities of the metropolitan councils.
Section 301 indicates that a minimum of five percent of national revenues will be channelled towards devolution.
Indications for 2019 are that this translates to $300 million.
Whilst this translates to $30 million per province and could mean significant development projects, remember, there is also the council itself and its administration to be funded as well.
A significant chunk of this budget will, therefore, finance the structure of the council and its staff.
This is where I have a problem with devolution, as currently proposed.
True, they say democracy does not come cheap, but our leaders could have proposed leaner structures to drive our devolution. Do we need all MPs, senate, and so on? The Mayor could lead a representative team of legislators just as only committee chairpersons come from councils.
Or maybe only senators (since they represent several constituencies) could sit in the metropolitan councils?
There is need to carefully think through the structure of the metropolitan councils.
Of course, there is already a challenge in that all these provisions are outlined in the Constitution.
Whilst the Act to provide for the structure of these councils and their staff is still in the making, there is no harm in our leaders revisiting the constitutional provisions for devolution and tweak them to best suit our needs. Devolution is a good thing. However, the current proposals risk creating a bloated structure that will absorb most of the budget intended for local development.
We need lean, efficient delivery-focussed local entities to drive our devolution agenda.
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The Mayor could lead a representative team of legislators just as only committee chairpersons come from councils.