Bulawayo Blues – Salvaging The City of Kings – By Dumisani O
Nkomo
Bulawayo has for decades been a leader in local governance
and service delivery excellence. This reputation has been gradually eroded over
the past 10 or so years and in particular the past three years .Significantly the death of at least 13
residents due to typhoid has severely compromised the stature and status of the
City of Kings Once known for cleanliness
and order the city has catastrophically and spectacularly descended into
the quagmire of poor service delivery .The water crisis which appears to be at the
epicentre of the current crisis in “Blues ‘is largely a creation of central
government which is statutorily required to provide bulk water for cities and
towns .I would like to argue that the crisis Bulawayo faces is a crisis of
leadership and governance which requires urgent , decisive and proactive action
.Solutions need to soberly through reaction to the service delivery quagmire and
leadership conundrum facing the city .The crisis in Bulawayo is a manifestation
of a deeper leadership crisis at local and national level .The multiplicity of
challenges facing the city of Bulawayo require the right leadership mix in
craft competencies in order to navigate the city towards sustainable growth ,
development and sound service delivery .
Context
In order to effectively deal with the Bulawayo leadership
and service delivery conundrum it is essential to have an appreciation of
contextual issues at macro and micro level . This understanding not only explains
failures of the current council due to extrinsic or exogenic factors but also
the type of leadership which is required to deal with the complex issues
affecting the city .
It is generally accepted that the economic landscape and
political architecture of Zimbabwe has destroyed local government capabilities
.The state of the economy has made it prohibitively difficult for local
authorities to deliver their core mandates of service delivery as well as sound
local governance epitomized by responsive local government structures and
processes .This is not rocket science and we expect those who contested to be
councillors to be fully aware of this .It is a fact and an uncontested one that government centralized provision of
bulk water through the Zimbabwe National Water Authority ZINWA has only managed to build one dam i.e
Mtshabezi Dam in the early 90”’s to mitigate the cities growing water problems
.It is also a fact that the state of the
economy has had crippling and debilitating effects on quality of and access to
service delivery .
Local authorities are also hamstrung by a disabling
legislative framework which grants sweeping powers to the Minister of Local
Government and central government .
Local government
elections have become short cuts for many opportunists and political scavengers
to hungrily descend on municipalities in search for tenders , stands and
freebies . The professional , competent
servant and service culture of the city has been eroded in the process .In this I lay responsibility not just on the
elected politicians but also on the executive arm or management arm of the city which is seized with operational
issues . The city of Bulawayo needs sound , visionary leadership anchored on
integrity from the councillors and an equally dynamic , craft competent
management free from avarice , caprice and the trappings of arrogance .I would
like to propose a number of ideas in order to improve the state of the city and
broadly local governance and service delivery in the city .It and.
In order to transition to stability and thereafter a
sustainable path of development the city needs
councillors and technocrats who understand the intricacies of local
governance its relationship with complex
economic and political ecosystems
1.Vison 2050 For The City
The City of Bulawayo inclusive of various stakeholders needs
to develop a 30-year visionary framework from the city. This of course may be
contained in current masterplans but I am referring to a more inclusive process
of drawing up a vision of the Bulawayo we want in 30 years’ time in terms of
the Local Economic Development [ L.E.D] , town planning , renewable energy , water and
sewer reticulation , recreation /park spaces , technology and so on . This
vision of the Bulawayo we want must then inspire us to take the necessary
policy and planning steps in five-year strategic planning cycles to achieve
this broader vision. This vision will also inform the kind of leaders that are
needed in order to achieve the 2050 Bulawayo vision. We will thus be driven not
by political parties but by vision and the desire to achieve vision through
deployment of competent leadership to govern and manage the city.
Bulawayo 2050 should make Bulawayo one of the fastest
growing cities in Sub Saharan Africa within that 30 year period. For that to
happen craft competence is required at the technocratic strata of the
municipality in order to effect planning and implementation and craft literate councillors
to provide vision, direction and oversight.
2.Meritocratic Leadership
Mob rule where the biggest thugs in political parties emerge
victorious in primary elections at the expense of quality candidates must be
replaced by a meritocratic system which provides for minimum thresholds for one
to be a councillor .This referrers not to academic qualifications but rather to
whether one has a proven track record in leadership , management or community
service at any level .Property ownership could be another qualification but it
must not be the sole determinant because many young Zimbabweans with potential
have lost their ability to acquire property due to the collapse of the
economy . It is however still an
important consideration. All those intending to contest must declare their
assets in order to curb issues of conflict of interest and gravitation towards kleptomania.
This however assumes that the electorate would be mature and be able to elect
quality councillors. The assumption itself is predicated on an informed and
active citizenry and this in turn assumes that there are institutions or
processes which produce such a citizen.
The electorate has to be educated and informed about the
importance of local governance thus the imperative of having quality councillors.
Civil society and the media have a key role in this respect and this civic
education must not happen in 2023 when political temperatures are at their highest
and reason is at its lowest. Citizens must be educated about the role of councillors
, the role of local authorities and indeed how they[ we ] as residents can
engage with municipalities as active citizens .The media also has a key role in
ensuring that it becomes a marketplace of ideas so that we do not have “people
accidentally chosen from the ranks of the unemployed “presiding over key
governance and financial stewardship issues .The governance and wellbeing of
the city should be so important that those who are best able to advance and
defend the interests of the city are elected . Such people are there in the
corporate sector, creatives, academia , labour , civil society ,community
leadership structures , churches and in the swathe of professions the city has
at its disposal .
Periodic Review of Performance of Public Officials
A system of public periodic reviews of key officials in
council management such as Town Clerks , Chamber secretaries and heads of
department must be put in place and the process must be open to public scrutiny
.This is because local authorities largely depend on the technical competence
of its management / technical arm and when this arm is compromised the
legislative or political arm is weakened .
Urban and rural councils legislation must have a recall
clause so that non performing councillors can be recalled not by their
political parties but by residents. This will no doubt keep councillors on
their toes .
The Bulawayo City Council specifically has to revisit and re-engineer
its previous capacity of harnessing revenue from alternative financial streams.
In the eighties the council mobilized significant resources for the
construction of schools and clinics from the proceeds of beer sales. This may
not be tenable under the current economic regime but efforts must be made to
maximize revenue harnessing from alternative streams such as council properties,
Private Public Partnerships and other local economic development initiatives.
The Bulawayo City Council must develop a robust Local Economic
Development Plan which elicits the
economic potential of the city based on its competitive advantages namely
1.Location – it is ideal as a gateway to southern Africa
2.Cultural and artistic capital – the city is the artistic
and cultural capital of the country
3.Tourism – the city is situated strategically near major tourist
attractions such as the Victoria Falls , Rhodes Matopos National Park , Hwange
Game reserve and the untamed beauty of Binga as well as one of the best natural
history museums in the continent
4.Warehousing – the location of the city makes it ideal for
tertiary industries such as warehousing which can exploit the many empty
factories which the city has which may never be resurrected because of global
competitiveness factors. The empty factories can be used for warehousing for
goods on transit and aquaculture
5.Transport and technology
Obviously some of these are dependent on upstream enabling
factors such as a functional economy, devolution enabling legislation , good
governance at national level amongst other factors .
Bulawayo must and can be saved. It all starts with electing
capable leaders, having a vibrant management, a responsive and responsible
citizenry undergirded by a long term
vision for the city .
Let’s make Bulawayo 2050 happen. Bulawayo vision 2050 makes
it impossible for chancers and opportunists to be councillors because the task
of implementing this vision will require people with skills and competencies
which deliver the vision . Bulawayo shall not die , Bulawayo must be and will
be saved .The first steps begin with you and me as ordinary residents :
1.Elect quality leaders
2.Hold leaders to account
3.Pay rates
4. Maintain cleanliness and eliminate litter pollution
5.Plant a tree
6.Petition political parties to recall non performing councillors
7.Share our dream of Bulawayo 2050
Mayibuye !
Dumisani O Nkomo
Dumisani O Nkomo is a writer and opinion leader . He is the
Chief Executive Officer of Habakkuk Trust
He writes here in his personal capacity
