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MMD policies have destroyed local govt system, says Mwiimbu

MMD policies have destroyed local govt system, says Mwiimbu
Written by Ernest Chanda

MONZE UPND member of parliament Jack Mwiimbu on Tuesday accused the MMD government of destroying the local government system in the country. And Kabwata PF member of parliament Given Lubinda has accused the local government minister of abrogating the local government Act.

Debating this year's estimates of expenditure for the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, Mwiimbu said the MMD's poor policies had destroyed the system.

"The local government system in Zambia has collapsed due to poor policies of the MMD. When the MMD came into power in 1991, the first act they made was to destroy the local government system. Because of their bad policies, cholera is now being celebrated as if it's a traditional ceremony. How do you expect any reasonable investor to come and invest in Kanyama where roads are bad? And Lusaka has now become an open air market because of street vending," Mwiimbu complained.

"Any responsible government is supposed to provide for every resident. The local government as I am speaking now has collapsed. How do you expect workers in local authority to provide their best when they have not been paid for three years? It is therefore incumbent upon any government to improve the local government system for good service delivery."

Mwiimbu, who boasted of having run the local government system well when he served as Lusaka Town Clerk, explained that every city in the world had developed because of support from the central government.

"I would like to state without fear of contradiction that there is no city in the world that has developed without funding from central government. Even major cities in the world like London and New York receive funding from the central government. It's fallacious to expect a town like Shang'ombo to find money to pay its workers," Mwiimbu said.

And Kabwata member of parliament Given Lubinda said the government had failed to serve the people going by the failure in the council's operations.

"The local government Act states that every first week of September there shall be a council meeting, and the first item on the agenda shall be the election of Mayor. Already this is March and we have no sign of mayoral elections. This has clearly destroyed the local government system. And the minister is clearly going against the Act. Instead of calling for mayoral elections, all we see is a circular talking about councillors' allowances. Councils don't want allowances but authority to run their affairs well," Lubinda said.

"Government is supposed to pay K7.4 billion annually to the Lusaka City Council in form of property rates. But only K600 million was given to Lusaka City Council in 2006. You set their [councils] property rate and you don't want to give them power. The failure of any council is a reflection of the failure of any government. People are saying this government is a failure. A government that can't collect solid waste, a government that can't collect sanitation waste, is a failure. The ministry of local government is currently squatting in a property for which it is not paying."

Lubinda also proposed that the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) be legislated.

"May I propose that CDF be an Act of Parliament. It must not be the discretion of a minister, but it must pass through this House. May the minister introduce an Act of Parliament that will give guidelines on the use of CDF. We do not like it when our colleagues appear in courts on issues of CDF. That reduces the integrity of this House," said Lubinda.

Labels: DECENTRALIZATION, GIVEN LUBINDA, JACK MWIIMBU, LOCAL GOVERNMENT, MONZE

posted by MrK @ 2:49 AM