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Hands off elected councils, MPs tell Chombo
The Zimbabwe Independent
February 17, 2006

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/news/2006/February/Friday17/4207.html

LEGISLATORS have expressed concern over the continued collapse of infrastructure and services in the country's cities and the arbitrary removal of elected councils by government which has imposed its own handpicked commissions to run most urban centres.

Moving a motion in parliament last Wednesday, Harare North legislator, Trudy Stevenson, expressed public alarm at the collapse of infrastructure and services in cities and towns and the outbreak of cholera.

She said legislators were dismayed by the removal of elected councils and their replacement by appointed commissions even though it was evident that commissions had done little to improve service delivery to residents.

"We demand that the Minister of Local Government and Urban Development immediately cease interfering with elected councils and take immediate steps to restore democracy in local government," Stevenson said.

Fellow legislators, Edwin Mushoriwa and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga agreed that government should respect the will of the people and stop interfering with elected council officials.

Makonde MP, Leo Mugabe, agreed with Stevenson that potholes, bad lighting in all cities and sewerage in Chitungwiza, Bulawayo, Mutare and other urban centres had gone out of control.

"I agree with her," Mugabe said.

"The solutions for the government is to say who is supposed to be doing this and if these local authorities that are in power and are supposed to be doing this, when they do not do their work you cannot expect the minister to just watch."

Local Government minister, Ignatious Chombo, has fired councillors and elected mayors in Harare, Chitungwiza and Mutare.

But Mugabe justified the minister's actions saying he was dealing with errant councillors who were failing to deliver.

Stevenson catalogued many cases of interference which she said had a discernible pattern.

"The pattern goes like this - you first accuse the mayor and the councillors of either corruption or failure to provide services. Those are the two charges. Then you institute a commission of inquiry and you handpick the people who are going to be in that commission of inquiry, so that obviously you choose some people to produce a report which is going to be to your liking."

She said the mayor and the council would be suspended and when the report came out, the councillors were dismissed to pave way for a commission to run the city.

"This has happened since the arrival on the scene of councils run by the MDC," Stevenson said. "But, in every case, I can confidently say the allegations are just trumped up. We are now two years down the line of the commission in Harare but the situation in Harare has not improved, instead it has worsened."

Stevenson said interference in council affairs increased following the appointment of Harare and Bulawayo Metropolitan governors to administer these provinces.

"In the Urban Councils Act, there is no such a thing as a metropolitan governor. Now in Harare and Bulawayo we have parallel structures, creating confusion and that is a recipe for disaster," she said.

Stevenson cited the unavailability of water, roads that are almost inaccessible because of potholes, decomposing uncollected refuse resulting diseases outbreak and raw sewerage flowing in the high-density residential streets as emblematic of the collapse of infrastructure countrywide.

She attributed the collapse to ministerial interference.

"In local government, people have a right to elect their representatives and their councils which are mandated to run the affairs of our cities and towns," she said. "So, when we have interference by government in the affairs of the council elected by the people, we run into problems."

Stevenson said burst water pipes affected the quantity of water available to the residents, citing a burst water pipe just outside her house for the past two years. She said water shortages had become severe in most cities, with Bulawayo and Harare the worst affected.

In Harare, areas like Mabvuku and Tafara have gone for three weeks without water. Residents have resorted to drinking water from unprotected wells dug along streams.

The streams are often fed from burst sewer pipes, exposing people to waterborne diseases. There were media reports this week that five people have died of cholera in Epworth recently.

Stevenson said even in cases when water was available, it was not potable. The commission running Harare last year announced that water in the capital was below acceptable health standards. "So, they recognised that they are not providing clean water and they do not seem to be finding chemicals and we were told that we are drinking raw sewage," Stevenson said.

Stevenson said provision of services in cities had ground to a halt.

"We have all noticed mostly the lack of refuse collection. Nobody comes to remove the garbage," she said

Stevenson said the collapse of infrastructure would bring about outbreaks of disease as was now happening in Harare and elsewhere.

Fourteen children under the age of five have died in Harare and Chitungwiza because of diarrhoea since November last year.

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