By Dr Masimba Mavaza | Why do councils fail? What happens when they do?
As a party ZANU PF has been grappling with these questions for some time, but just at the moment they seem more pressing than ever. It’s not just Harare and Bulawayo and the spectre of other councils but every council in Zimbabwe has been limping and crawling after being abuses and violated by the MDC led councillors. Failure is often many years in the making. Councils become less outward looking, more introspective, more defensive – they develop narratives about themselves and their own performance which increasingly bear no relation to reality.
On the national stage we see the end product of this gradual slide when it escalates into the public domain – often precipitated by events that make no sense to outsiders. How can this have been allowed to happen? Failure seems so obvious and self-evident that we fool ourselves that we couldn’t fall into the same traps and yet failure continues to happen.
We’re worried that we don’t, in our party have the mechanisms to deal consistently with council failure – particularly as the risks (not only financial) continue to grow. This is because almost all the councils are under the opposition. We actually need to reclaim these towns back so that we will be able to bring back sanity in our towns.
Opposition is an articulation of the key factors that lead failure to happen. ZANU PF needs to explore the current national landscape around failure and improvements and tries to chart a course for how Government, and sector led, improvement and intervention might be enhanced – in particular, by more attention being paid to the strength of governance at a local level.
ZANU PF promises to so better at identifying and arresting the risks of failure reducing the risk of intervention further down the line and feeding into the existing party led improvement
framework.
We recognise that there are plenty of people out there with their own views around local failure and improvement. This is because of the unguarded social media which parrots the failures of the MDC led failures and heap them on the feet of ZANU PF.
The party is keen to hear people’s views – in towns as we plan to refine and develop our thoughts on strengthened local governance, by speaking to a range of people involved in intervention at a local level, to really dig in to what failure looks and feels like, and by so doing help others to recognise it and draw themselves back from the edge – particularly where the risks are imminent.
The electorate must not be fooled the problems in our towns where we have been put fifty years back is the work of the opposition. They want to rescue our city statuses and blame their inefficiency on ZANU PF.
The MDC has been in council dominance since 2002. We have suffered enough.There needs to be a “thorough rethink” about how to approach failure in local government, the blame lies squarely on the opposition.
Methods of addressing failure in local government are “no longer fit for purpose”
There are four main types of failures which include a failure of culture, a failure of service, a failure of function and a failure of duty. The opposition led councils experiencing these types of failure often become less outward looking, more introspective and more defensive. The government’s recent experience of working with local authorities shows that it is time for a thorough rethink about council failures.
“Failure in councils is not something that is going to go away – in fact, a range of looming pressures mean that the problem is likely to become more prevalent in the years ahead unless the opposition is kicked out of the towns. Those in towns need to prepare for increasing instances of failure in the years ahead unless they remove MDC and CCC councillors.
ZANU PF is clear that improved scrutiny processes at the local level will be crucial in this effort.”
“The circumstances leading to failure – in councils as well as in the public sector more generally poorly understood.
“The impact of corporate collapse is always most acute for people whose lives depend upon vital local services, so it is crucial that we gain a more informed understanding of what causes failure, the better to detect the warning signs and bolster local intervention and improvement measures at the earliest opportunity.
There is no improvement without your input. You need to vote ZANU PF in the council elections. You can not have a country without council.
A local councillor will have numerous roles and responsibilities. It is a wide ranging and onerous position but can be very rewarding and some councillors seek re-election, some of them serving for 20 years or more but you must ask yourself one question what has been achieved by the opposition led councils in the past twenty years.
They had a duty to represent the views of the community and their needs. This is not restricted to your own ward as you must be objective and take into consideration the needs and well-being of all residents and the community as a whole.
Councillors also spend a great deal of time with their constituents through holding drop-in surgeries and corresponding and engaging with their constituents on a wide range of matters. When last did you see a councillor in towns calling you for a meeting. The opposition councillors have taken you for a ride far too long. This is time to stand up and be counted. Chose a new councillor. If a Councillor is also a member of a political party, they will be expected to attend political group meetings especially before council meetings, and also be required to attend party training, campaigns and events. So which party was your councillor reporting to.
It f a Councillor is also a member of a political party, they will be expected to attend political group meetings especially before council meetings, and also be required to attend party training, campaigns and events. process.
Each council has their governance arrangements detailed in its Constitutional documents, which will be outlined as part of induction.
The primary role of a councillor is to represent the ward and the citizens who live in it. Members of political parties may find that their party offers guidance on doing this. Councillors have a central part to play in making decisions that impact on their ward and across the whole council. They will be involved in decision-making through: so for the past 20 years what decisions were made by your councillors on your behalf.
You can not vote for the failed councillors over and over again. There will be no change. Vote for ZANU PF give the councils back to the party of excellency.