Provincial, Metropolitan Councils Bill ready
GOVERNMENT has completed drafting the Provincial and Metropolitan Councils Bill meant to operationalise the councils that were established by the country’s Constitution adopted in 2013, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told the National Assembly on Wednesday.
The Provincial and Metropolitan Councils were established as part of Government’s devolution agenda with the local authorities expected to lead development activities for their respective provinces.
The councils have however, remained dormant due to the absence of an enabling law as envisaged by the Constitution.
Harare and Bulawayo will have Metropolitan Councils while the remaining eight that are largely rural will be run by Provincial Councils.
“I am pleased to announce that we have now finalised the Provincial and Metropolitan Councils Bill and we are going to make sure we fasttrack it, and if necessary, we may use other means to ensure that it becomes operational while the House is deliberating on it.
“I can also assure the House that it has been thoroughly dealt with and it is a very good Bill that should be able to ensure that our Provincial and Metropolitan Councils function efficiently,” he said.
Minister Ziyambi also told the House that Government had adopted a new approach to address perennial water woes affecting most urban local authorities.
He said this while responding to CCC legislator, Ms Thokozani Khupe’s question on what Government was doing to end Bulawayo’s water shortages.
“What we have realised is that the current water shortages in Bulawayo are not because of insufficient raw water availability, but we have a water reticulation system that is now outdated.
“So, we agreed that going forward, instead of having several projects scattered around the country, let us focus on one particular area and we completely refurbish and move to the other. In our programming, we are now going to start with Bulawayo because we totally need to remove all the pipes and re-do the water reticulation in order to ensure continuous sustenance of water delivery,” he said.
Minister Ziyambi added that the completion of the Gwayi-Shangani Dam will also improve availability of raw water in Bulawayo.