Zimbabwe will be holding its second election without Mugabe in 2023. It has already been 3 years since the current office bearers were elected into office.
The political landscape is dominated by two political fronts, ZanuPF and MDC Alliance with the latter leading most urban councils since 2000.
With this, MDC Alliance has always been presented with an opportunity to prove themselves able leaders.
Recently, President Emmerson Mnangagwa is on record saying that MDC Alliance councils have failed and ZanuPF must takeover councils come 2023 elections.
He said the central government is taking bold steps to interfere especially on curbing illegal settlements sprouting in the cities and coming up with an ecological places strategic plan.
Besides the politics of it, which must always lay in the hands of the people this is a fair point to make with regards to settlement, service delivery and performance of urban councils.
They have not been a force in the day to day running of councils and have failed to do regular things expected of a normal council.
People in urban areas have failed to access clean and safe water, roads are in a sorry state, there are no regular waste collections services and quality health remains barely accessible. This is not to leave out the menace that has been caused by land barons conniving with council officials to dupe citizens on residential stands allocation.
In defence, the MDC Alliance leaders always say they cannot do better when the local government ministry is sabotaging their efforts and that they are operating in an ailing Zimbabwean economy.
Of course, the ruling party has a hand on operations by local authorities since the minister is empowered by the Urban Councils Act to oversee and directly influence councils.
The central government has a heavy influence on procurement, approval of budgets in time, innovations that have to be approved and even staff recruitment.
If the alternative forces know they will not do anything productive under this current state, why are they still reporting for duty? Promising the masses progress, knowing very well there is nothing to deliver?
What a sad state!
It seems the politics of thing is raining down havoc as the two political outfits are acting like similar magnetic poles (which they are) and are repelling each other away at the citizen’s expense.
These two political outfits are setting each other up for failure. In return, they get future political benefits.
At the end of it all, people will witness chaos such as the Budiriro demolitions where residents suffered the fate of politics at play.
Service delivery in Zimbabwe must be a shared obligation and heartfelt action between political parties to serve the people beyond politics.
In the current predicament, local authorities cannot survive in isolation. The central government has to facilitate works, projects and progress in some way.
We all know the endgame of political gamesmanship in this context.
Service delivery to the slaughterhouse!
