Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) MDC-T denies corruption, defends record

COMMENT - I guess Violet Gonda of the VOA (CIA) isn't allowed to do a positive interview with anyone from the ZANU-PF. So much for the 'free press'.

MDC-T denies corruption, defends record
12/02/2012 00:00:00
by Violet Gonda I VOA

TENSIONS are mounting between the Minister of Local Government, Ignatius Chombo, and councils controlled by the Movement for Democratic Change over local authority management as delivery of key services slumps nationwide. Deteriorating infrastructure, disintegrating roads and broken-down water and sewer systems have hampered normal municipal operations.

The MDC formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai has accused Chombo of meddling in council business in many municipalities, and of attempting to sack and replace councilors with Zanu PF officials under the guise of special interests.

Chombo says he is doing his job by firing errant councilors from the former opposition MDC, citing poor performance and corruption. He suspended scores of councilors last year including the mayors of Bindura and Chinhoyi. In January he suspended one of his most outspoken adversaries, Mutare mayor Brain James, alleging misconduct, an accusation James rejects.

In parliament, a motion has been tabled proposing to amend the Urban Councils Act to reduce the powers of the controversial minister.

For perspective on this widespread dispute, Voice of America reporter Violet Gonda spoke with deputy local government minister Cecil Zvidzai of the MDC and Former president Gerry Gotora of the Association of Rural District Councils of Zimbabwe:

Zvidzai: There is no disaster in this country at local government level. Services are forever improving and the councils have done so well in terms of improving the delivery of portable water, in terms of improving refuse management, in terms of solid waste management. All that has improved, and the index to measure that is around the cholera pandemic. In 2008-9 we lost lives due to cholera and this is associated with poor water and sanitation.

Our local authorities have improved significantly. You have not seen any major strike in the local authorities because they are very consultative, they involve the people and the people are generally happy with the ever-improving levels of services they enjoy, which are improving with the emerging economy.

The problem we have got is political. The problem is serious interference, the abuse of the law by the minister to score a few political points – as a result of a disappointment that they lost at the plebiscite in 2008. Zanu PF lost all urban local authorities. But the minister wants to reverse the desires of the people through the use of administrative powers to remove MDC councilors and replace them with Zanu PF functionaries.

GONDA: Mr. Gotora is this a correct assessment of the local government?

GOTORA: It is not a fair assessment particularly when it is coming from a former mayor of a city (Gweru) that was very well planned and that was very clean at some stage – which today looks like it has never been cleaned at all. The problem in local government right now is that people politicize refuse removal; people politicize water delivery just because my political party has won therefore nobody should touch them.

Let me take you to the beginning – all new councilors require training and it not the responsibility only of government to train people in local government. The association, which I led for more than 20 years, was doing fantastic training and that is no longer there because the association appears to have no leadership at all because they are politicizing it.

Furthermore, the issue of non-demonstrations in urban areas does not mean that people are satisfied. Zimbabweans are civilized people.

It’s unfortunate that the deputy minister is speaking like he is speaking from a political party office. The removal of solid waste in the country at the moment is probably at its worst. There are dumps and dumps of rubbish – even in First Street in Harare, which you never used to see. If you go to the mayor’s office- right in from of the mayor’s office in Gweru – which Mr. Zvidzai was proud of he cannot tell me the current mayor is proud of that.

The councilors need training, the councilors need guidance, the councilors need financing – this is what Mr. Zvidzai should be talking about, that we need to finance these councilors so that they perform better.

Corruption is at its highest because I know of some deputy mayor who had no house in Zimbabwe but now he is living in a double story mansion in a very expensive suburb in Harare. Where did he suddenly get the money? Some of the councilors didn’t even have an Anglia car but now they are moving in Range Rovers and 4x4s - and people say there is no corruption?

I was in local government for more than 40 years but I don’t have anything to show for it. I don’t even have a stand in rural township because councilors then were clean, they were not power hungry and they were not there to deliver benefits to themselves but to deliver services to the people.

Any mayor or councilor worth his salt should not suddenly become a billionaire in terms of acquiring properties. No that’s wrong.

GONDA: Let me get a response from Mr. Zvidzai. Mr. Gotora says - the situation is deteriorating and corruption is rife. What does it say about the MDC operations when all the councilors are from the MDC?

ZVIDZAI: Well I don’t know where my colleague is living. If he lives in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare or Gweru he should be the first one to admit that the emerging economy has with it carried an improvement in services. With respect to corruption, let me say that from a statistical point of view, from a study of these numbers and the behavior of people - there is what is called the Pareto Principal – 20 percent of any normal population is abnormal.

So what I am saying is that 20 percent of randomly elected councilors may be corrupt –maybe out of the normal – so it’s fairly normal if it is about 20 percent. In our case, the Minister of Local Government uses the sternest test, the un-fairest measures against these councilors and to date he has suspended 12 councilors out of a total of 800 councilors.

When these councilors challenged the minister’s decision in the High Court, six were found not guilty at all, which means six out of 800 is less than two percent. So it’s not numbers that you have to write to the moon about to say Zimbabwe is decaying under corruption. They are simply being tested very un-fairly and the propaganda machinery has been set in motion in the strongest way to rubbish the MDC rather than to tell the truth – but the truth of the matter is that services are improving, corruption is not that high compared to the past but it’s just the measurements that are unfair.

GONDA: Mr. Gotora what can you say … (interrupted)

GOTORA: If I happened to be Minister of Local Government tomorrow I would dissolve most of the councils. Our current Vice President when he was Minister of Local Government he dissolved 12 local authorities in the country – that’s 12. There was no opposition councilor, it was coming from the same party but he dissolved them because of poor performance.

Minister Chombo has been very lenient with these councilors because he is afraid of being labeled anti a particular political party. If I were the minister, I’d dissolve them all because they have performed poorly!

If he says it is normal to have 20 percent of corrupt people I don’t know which world he lives in. As Zimbabweans we don’t entertain even 0.02 percent of corrupt practices. Yes corruption is there and we must get rid of it. Minister Chombo has actually been slow in nipping this cancer in its bud. The councilors who are there today are the worst crop of councilors because I am an experienced councilor, I am a leader of local government, I am practitioner by profession not by politics, not by election but by profession. These people have failed and they must go like yesterday!

GONDA: But Mr. Gotora is it really only about poor performance by the councilors or it’s also about serious interference by the minister?

GOTORA: The law as it stands today, when I was in local government and when I was a leader of the local authorities in this country I suggested that either we have 46 amendments to the local government laws, and Mr. Zvidzai supported me at that time, but since he has been in government he has not said a word about those changes.

The current parliament which is almost more MDC than ZANU PF no one has said a word about coming up with a new local government law or the 46 amendments which I suggested some seven years ago. For them to start blaming Minister Chombo when he is using the law as it is obtaining today that’s unfair.

So it is the parliamentarians who are wrong, they must change the law not a single minister. We have what are called ‘members amendments’ or ‘members motions’ in parliament but I have not heard a members motion talking about introducing the local government law or talking about amending certain sections of the law, but when the minister uses law people say he is wrong and if he doesn’t use the law people say there is no rule of law. I don’t know what kind of world we are living in.
GONDA: Mr. Zvidzai what can you say about this?

ZVIDZAI: I can see that my eminent colleague who I largely agreed with so much with respect to law reform is a little bit outdated. At the moment if he goes to the government gazette he will see that a bill has been gazetted to reduce the powers of the minister and strengthen the powers of councils because the biggest problem - the abuse of a law that is already bad is what’s happening. The minister… (interrupted)

GOTORA: If there is an amendment let there be an amendment but for now he must be allowed to use the law as it obtains.
GONDA: Mr. Gotora please let the deputy minister finish.

ZVIDZAI: The portfolio committee on local government, which comprises Zanu PF and the MDC, has agreed that the biggest problem is the abuse of the law and they want to tighten it so that the minister cannot abuse it for his political ends. This is why this law has been gazetted and it has actually been promoted by the local government portfolio committee not even MDC – we are all, as a nation, agreed that this law is being abused.

GONDA: What about the issues Mr. Gotora raised that the minister has been very lenient with the MDC councilors who he says were dismissed because of poor performance.

ZVIDZAI: Well I have suffered at the hands of the minister when I was Mayor of Gweru. I was investigated once every year for four years although the minister knew there was nothing I was doing wrong. Similarly at the moment he is busy harassing these mayors and he is busy rescinding resolutions, he is busy stopping them from making decisions effectively to deliver to the people. Minister Chombo is on an agenda to cause the councils to fail so that he can point at these councilors and say they are not educated, they are from the MDC.

When the truth of the matter is that he is just being political. It’s not coincidental that he has upped the tempo during an election year. Recent dismals include the Mayor of Chinhoyi, the Mayor of Mutare and the Chairman of Zvishavane. It’s not coincidental it’s about election thinking, it’s not about the people it’s about power, power, power – that’s the paradigm.

Labels: IGNATIUS CHOMBO, MDC CORRUPTION, VIOLET GONDA, VOA

posted by MrK @ 3:25 PM