Local council elections must be won by best candidate
IN order for any country to experience sustainable growth epitomised by sound service delivery, inclusivity and citizen participation, it is vital that a vibrant local governance foundation be in place.
Importantly the local government tier of governance in a polity has to be functional, effective, relevant and responsive. Since local government is the tier of government which is closest to the daily needs of people, it is vital that this stratum exists within an architecture, which allows it to deliver economic and social dividends through service delivery.
In the Zimbabwean context it is imperative that we begin to rethink our local governance landscape and this article proffers a few insights into how this can be done.
Service delivery challenges
The provision of quality, affordable, accessible and inclusive basic services is the alpha and omega of local governance. In order to trigger this adequate service provision there has to be a balanced demand and supply matrix.
The demand side of local governance is the sum total of the needs, aspirations, voice, demands, rights of citizens and residents who are the primary consumers of services provided by local authorities. Local authorities whether urban or rural form the basis of the supply side of local governance. In terms of the Urban Councils Act and the Rural District Councils Act local authorities exist to ensure that residents, villagers, house dwellers etc have adequate access to services and development.
If this then is the case there is a strong argument for strong residents associations, community organisations, local business organisations having adequate space, capacity and skills to demand services and development from the suppliers of the services who are principally but not necessarily the local authorities.
I would like to argue that though local authorities in the form of municipalities are supposed to be the principal service providers this is not necessarily the case because of centralisation of services, such as bulk water supply and electricity.
Centralisation
Whereas the pre-independence era was predicated by local authorities that were mandated to provide services such as electricity and water, the post-independence era or rather error in this instance occasioned the centralisation of some vital services. This culminated in legislation which brought the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa), the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) and the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa).
If the government is serious about devolution of power there has to be a radical rethink about this service provision paradigm, which centralises both power and provision of basic services whilst reducing revenue streams of local authorities.
If we are to embrace the principle and practice of devolution and decentralisation of power and services as a nation we also need to have a radical rethink about our current architecture which places local authorities on the margins of the service provision super structure of the country.
Principally, I would like to advocate for the eventual devolution of provision of energy, road construction and water to local authorities. This has to be done incrementally or in an evolutionary manner because if it is fast tracked it can create new problems.
Such new problems include incompetent and corrupt local councils that could possibly accentuate the service delivery crisis which the nation is clearly facing.
It would take between five to 10 years to adequately devolve provision of these three services to all local authorities as they are all at different levels of capacity and technical craft competence .
Why councils fail to deliver?
Currently most local authorities are failing to fulfil their mandate of delivering quality services to citizens for a plethora of reasons, which I will explore. Provision of services, such as refuse collection remains a challenge in major cities, such as Harare and Bulawayo. Other local authorities are battling to provide adequate sewer reticulation and a swathe of municipalities are failing to do the most basic things that a local authority should and can do, that is to keep cities and towns clean.
The reasons for this failure includes but are not limited to:
Outright corruption
Incompetence
Lack of capacity
Limited revenue base
Central government interference - the case of local authorities being forced to acquire fire tenders from Belarus is an example.
There must be inbuilt mechanisms at the oversight level of sub-national governance to contain the scourge of local level corruption. It would be naïve to assume that once all power is devolved or decentralised corruption will disappear.
Instead there may be, as there has been, a proliferation of local level corruption . Provincial and metropolitan councils must be legally strengthened to exercise legislative, judicial and administrative oversight over local authorities.
Provincial governments or sub-national governments must in turn be accountable to the central government and parliament.
Issues that relate to lack of capacity and incompetence have to do with both the supply and demand side of local governance. Citizens elect inept and manifestly unable, unwilling and incompetent councillors then expect miracles from those very same people. Citizens have to be more responsible on the demand side by electing individuals that are capable of delivering.
Unfortunately the partisan nature of Zimbabwean politics makes this impossible. One only has to be a member of Zanu PF or the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) to win as a councillor.
Rethinking elections
Ideally local government elections must be delinked from presidential and parliamentary elections and held in totally different years.
The assumption is that once this is done local governance issues will emerge as separate electoral issues. This of course is in theory since this was the case in 1980 and 1985 when local government elections were separate from national elections.
I still argue that local and national elections must be separated for the following reasons .
To ensure that local government elec•tions
are issue-based or based on local issues. Usually they are immersed in toxic politics of whether Zanu must go or Zanu must stay and not on issues that affect people on a day-to-day basis.
It will be easier to hold parties and individuals to account
Independent candidates will higher chance of winning .
Traditionally independents have been the best candidates due to their lack of affinity to partisan interests. However most have lost heavily due to our electoral system which deifies political parties before whom all should bow and confess that they rule.
A big question for all of us as we head for the next elections in 2023 is what issues are at stake in the different localities next year?
Ideally the issue of controversial parking stand
asystems, failure to provide basic services should be local government issues in let us say Harare and Bulawayo.
In other areas the issues could be different but candidates that contest in elections must be able to participate in town hall debates and meetings where they outline their policies and ideas.
Local government elections must be about the best ideas, the best leaders and the best policies and local government elections must be a contest of ideas.
This is not to say national elections must be otherwise but this is easier to achieve at local level.
Broadening of revenue streams
Lastly I would like to argue that local authorities are unable to deliver services because they have dwindling and limited revenue streams. A failing national economy has eroded rate-payers abilities to pay for rates and services.
Local authorities have very limited central government support. This is due to diminished incomes which have resulted in ratepayers being unable to pay for rates and services.
This is also caused by the central government starving local governments of revenue streams from, for example, vehicle licensing which used to be localised.
This is also exacerbated by local authorities' ability to think outside the box to broaden their revenue bases in order to provide quality services. Without broad revenue bases local authorities will be unable to deliver basic services.