Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
GWERU City Council is targeting to work on street lights in the central business district (CBD) and residential areas using $4 million it received from Government under devolution.
Mayor Councillor Josiah Makombe commended Government for releasing the funds, which he said will go towards improving service delivery.
“As Gweru City Council, we have received $4 million from Government under the devolution fund and that money is going towards improving street lighting from the Central Business District to the high and low density suburbs,” he said.
“We are expecting another batch of $1,3 million in the next two weeks.”
Vungu Rural District Council has also received over $1 million under the devolution fund.
The council’s chief executive Mr Alex Magura said the money will go towards construction of a clinic and drilling of boreholes.
“We received a total of $1 040 000 from Government and it is going towards the construction of a clinic and drilling of boreholes,” he said. “We need a new clinic to improve access to health to our people as well as drilling more boreholes to address water challenges.”
Mr Magura said his council was mandated to provide social services (health and education), infrastructure development, provision of all-weather trafficable roads, and maintenance of existing roads, environmental management, spatial planning and development control within its area of jurisdiction.
“We have a total road network of 1 900 kilometres, which comprise of primary, secondary and tertiary access and feeder roads,” he said. “The district has over 80 business centres, eight rural service centres and one growth point.
“The district is engaged in mining, agriculture and wildlife as major economic activities.”
President Mnangagwa has approved payment of salaries for provincial council members in line with implementing the devolution agenda. He has said his Government is prioritising devolution and decentralisation in the running of national affairs as a strategy to revitalise the economy and to improve the people’s standards of living.
The new Constitution provides for a new system of provincial governance through provincial councils.
Harare and Bulawayo will have metropolitan provincial councils.