LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM IN ZIMBABWE AND ASSOCIATED CHALLENGES: SYNTHESIS AND ANTITHESIS

Abstract

The local government system in Zimbabwe has experienced many changes and challenges during the colonial period and after independence in 1980. The Urban and Rural District Council Acts have been amended many times to initiate efficiency and effectiveness in local governance.  The focus of such changes included the need to remove racial discrimination, abolish dual systems of development emphasizing white and black areas, develop democracy, good governance, decentralisation and to align local governments institutions’ politics and policies in such a way that they support national strategies and visions for development. Despite many strategies or policies initiated over the years, it system the admirable local government system inherited from the colonial period has deteriorated significantly. Varied challenges have been articulated that include lack of funding, too much central government interventions in local issues, recentralisation through forcing local government officers to report to Governors, Provincial Administrators and District Administrators, violence during local elections, abuses of political power by the Minister of Local Government who ‘willy nilly’ or constantly has dismissed councillors, councils and mayors and so on. The study was a typical desk research. Documents from central government, local governments and books and journals were reviewed and analysed. The results indicate that political comment to achieving democracy, good governance and decentralization is needed. The description of the local government system of Zimbabwe in the new National Constitution (2013) is a positive development. Local government legislation has given too much power to the Minister of Local Government who has tended to abused it as evidenced by unilateral appointments of Commissions and firings of legal institutions. There is also need to elected literate councillors who can form policies or interpret statistical information like financial data especially during budget debates. The deterioration of a local government system cherished by many during the 1980s to the 1990s is a clear testimony of the slow political, governance and democratic development processes.