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Midlands Bureau
THE Midlands Province has so far received $58 million in devolution funds from Government and invested the bulk of the money into water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects as well as constructing and upgrading health facilities.

Projects being implemented include water reticulation at Gweru City Council, Redcliff Municipality, Runde Rural District Council and Zvishavane Town Council.

Rehabilitation is being undertaken at health facilities that include Bell Medical Centre in Redcliff, Garandichauya Infectious Disease Clinic in Kwekwe, Mapfungautsi Clinic in Gokwe Town and Sesame Promise Medical Centre in Gokwe South.

Midlands Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Larry Mavima said devolution funds had brought developmental changes across the province.

“The Midlands Province has so far received $58 million Devolution Funds from Central Government, and invested the bulk of the money into water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects and construction and upgrading of health facilities. It is, therefore, imperative that disbursements of the funds be sustained throughout the year and covering all local authorities,” he said.

Minister Mavima said despite the challenging economic environment, local authorities in the province were trying their best to provide services to communities such as water, sewer reticulation, road maintenance, among others, in their areas of jurisdiction.

“Water reticulation projects are taking place in Gweru, Redcliff, Runde and Zvishavane. Rehabilitation of health facilities include Bell Medical Centre in Redcliff, Garandichauya Infectious Disease Clinic in Kwekwe, Mapfungautsi Clinic in Gokwe Town and Sesame Promise Medical Centre in Gokwe South,” he said.

Government has said it will appoint technocrats to spearhead the devolution agenda under the five-year National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which will replace the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) at the end of the year.

The appointment of experts to give technical guidance to Ministers of Provincial Affairs and provincial development coordinators was part of efforts to attain an Upper Middle Income economy by 2030.

The Public Service Commission (PSC) is in the process of identifying and deploying director level personnel to attend to provincial governance issues under NDS1 which will run from 2021 to 2025. They will assist provincial ministers in effective and efficient allocation and utilisation of resources provided by Government in support of devolution.

In every province, there will be directors for economic development, governance, finance, administration and human resources.

For the Harare and Bulawayo Metropolitan Provinces, there will be two additional directors because of the peculiarity of urban environments.

The directors will be responsible for Infrastructure Planning and Development and Spatial Planning and Environmental Management.