Govt enacted laws impact service delivery in local authorities

He said since the government established the Zimbabwe National Road Authority (ZINARA) in charge of road and vehicle collections, most councils have been struggling to fix roads.“According to the Urban Councils Act, the council must channel at least 70 percent of the budget towards service delivery. I believe that is the best way to go. The issue of finances has been topical because there are issues to do with the legislative framework in the country. City council does not have everything in their favour,” he said.

“City council used to have a lot of revenue streams from such sources as car licensing, power generation but all these were taken away. When ZINARA came into being, all car licensing started going into a national consolidated pool. The ploughing back process is the problem because ZINARA does not disburse enough funds for local authorities so that they may effectively discharge their duties. So as far as finances are concerned, the challenge is to do with legislative framework that is in place at the moment.”

Ndlovu said it is heartbreaking to see how the standards of service delivery have gone down.

“Generally, service delivery has gone down. Our roads have dilapidated, it is painful to imagine how people are still driving on them. Water supply as well is a challenge. Bulawayo is supposed to have water supply which is in sync with the development and expansion of the city. ZINWA has let the city down. It did not fulfill its mandate to build more dams, we still have the same water sources if not fewer,” he said.

“Storm drainages have gone down the drain. Street lighting is now poor. Sewer systems are terrible. We should thank God that people are still alive because the amount of sewer that is flowing is just too much.