The Chronicle
Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
LOCAL authorities have said devolution funds have become a game changer as the resources have enabled them to fund infrastructural development projects they were failing to fund before.
Most local authorities have been struggling to generate adequate resources to fund big projects and Central Government came to the rescue by providing devolution funds. Government has in the 2022 budget provided $42 billion to be disbursed to provinces as devolution funds.
President Mnangagwa has declared that no community should be left behind as the country pursues inclusive development for it to achieve Vision 2030.
He has said the Second Republic would not allow illegal sanctions imposed by the West to derail the country’s development agenda hence a number of projects are being implemented using local resources.
Devolution funds are being used to construct and rehabilitate roads, build classroom blocks and clinics as well as rehabilitate water reticulation infrastructure in both rural and urban areas.
In separate interviews, senior council officials said their councils are implementing a number of projects that are transforming communities after receiving devolution funds from central Government.
Binga Rural District Council chief executive officer Mr Joshua Muzamba said before receiving the devolution funds, council was struggling to fund infrastructure projects such as rehabilitation of roads, construction of schools and clinics.
“Our revenue collection was adversely affected by the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and as such we are collecting very little. Most businesses were closed for the grater part of last year and this year and most commercial activities were suspended hence the reduced revenue.
Devolution funds have therefore enabled us to fund infrastructure development projects,” said Mr Muzamba.
He said the local authority was allocated in excess of $20 million to construct three clinics and rehabilitate roads in the district which ordinarily, they would have failed to implement.
Matobo RDC chief executive officer Mr Elvis Sibanda said communities will soon realise the benefits of devolution funds.
Mr Sibanda said some villagers were travelling up to 60km to the nearest clinic but the distances will soon be reduced.
“The devolution funds have availed the required resources to implement a number of development projects in our area. We are constructing two clinics which we are expecting to complete on or before 31 December this year.
We have one clinic which is at Mlugulu, which is almost complete and has two nurses’ houses. The devolution funds came at a time when we were witnessing a drop in revenue due to many challenges,” said Mr Sibanda.
He said without devolution funds, local authorities were going to struggle to fund infrastructure development projects.
Hwange Local Board Town Clerk Mr Ndumiso Mdlalose said in the past councils had to seek external funding for most capital projects which came as loans with high interest. He said the situation changed when Government started disbursing devolution funds to councils.
“Infrastructure projects were implemented through Public Sector Investment Programme whereby we had to seek loans to fund the projects. Now with these devolution funds, it is no longer expensive to councils to fund development projects,” said Mr Mdlalose.
He said council has been able to improve on access to clean water among other social amenities using devolution funds.
“We are focusing on water and sanitation as well as social infrastructure. We funded construction of a pre-school and in the coming year, we are looking at funding construction of a primary school,” he said. – @nqotshili·
Article Source: The Chronicle