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The draft Constitution has left it to Parliament to legislate for provisions of holding elections for local government throughout the country. The debate has already begun with some sections of the population advocating the executive while other sections are opting for a ceremonial mayorship.
Since independence, we have had ceremonial mayors and then later, executive mayors. On one hand, there were executive mayors who did not understand the limits of their power.

They started interfering with the work and authority of the actual chief executive, the town clerks. Where a company has an executive chairman, there cannot be another chief executive as there will be conflict between the two centres of authority running the same company.

The system of executive mayors was then abolished and cities and towns reverted back to the former system of ceremonial mayors with the Town Clerks having undiluted authority as chief executives.

Another aspect that was detrimental to the smooth running of cities and towns, when executive mayors were installed, was that the executive mayors were taking instructions from their parties instead of being answerable to the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development.

The system of executive mayors created not only two centres of authority but three centres of authority, namely, the executive mayor and their political party, the Town Clerk answerable to the Ministry of Local Government and then the Minister of Local Government.

Where the major problem arose was when the executive mayor came from a different political party from that of the Minister of Local Government. To understand this; I wish to take the readers back to events that took place in UK when Margaret Thatcher became prime minister in 1979.

London Greater Council was controlled by the Labour Party with Ken Livingstone as mayor. Thatcher admits in her book, that she abolished the London Greater Council because she did not want to share power in the capital city with the opposition.

The Greater London Council was only restored when Tony Blair won the general election in 1997. This means that very few governments will be comfortable to share power in the capital city with the opposition.

The only way out of a tricky and uncomfortable situation is to opt for a ceremonial mayor who is answerable to the councillors and the Minister of Local Government.
The Town Clerk will remain as the chief executive reporting to the councillors but answerable to the Ministry of Local Government.

The third aspect that derailed the system of executive mayorship were the costs involved in setting up office of executive mayor. Government embarked on building new houses for executive mayors at the expense of residents who yearned for the cash to be used for service delivery. All along, ceremonial mayors lived in their own houses, maybe, getting an allowance for doing so. Some mayors used their own transport.

With the advent of executive mayors, expensive cars were bought for them to go with their improved status. This was a burden on the financial resources of cities and towns.
The councils at present, are hamstrung due to lack of money for treatment of water and other services like repairs of the dilapidated infrastructure to afford the luxury of spending money on executive mayors.

What is required is to streamline the work of councils throughout the country so that they can serve the needs of residents that pay for the sustenance of expected quality service delivery. The only drawback has been the non-payment of bills by so many people and organizations which has impeded the work of councils.

It must also be mentioned that the lack of supervision of councils by the Ministry of Local Government has led to Town Clerks spending money as though there was no tomorrow.

The management of local government entities must be answerable to the Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government or even to the Public Service Commission.
Ultimately, the Ministry of Finance must play a major role in seeing that financial probity is adhered to by all public organisations, be they local authorities or parastatals.

The situation at present where each organisation can peg their own salaries or expenditures to the detriment of good governance must be a thing of the past.
The new constitution, through Acts of Parliament, must make it clear where the centre authority lies in governing of public organisations.

The constitution has been agreed to by all political parties and the people of Zimbabwe through the referendum. Now is the time to correct all misnomers that existed that prevented local authorities to concentrate on serving the people.

There shall be no excuse given when the system fails especially where a chance has arisen to correct all faults through the new constitution.
The residents must play a part in voting for people of substance to become councillors in this new dispensation accorded by the new constitution.