MIDWEEK REPORTER
MASVINGO-Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD) had a difficult time to select the best performing councillors for 2022 in 79 wards after all of them scored very lowly on the standard scorecard.
Most of the councillors in the 79 wards in Masvingo Rural, Zaka and Masvingo Urban scored below 50% on accessibility, availability and responsiveness to the electrolate with some getting as low as 10% on accessibility.
However, among the low scorers they managed to select three councillors who outperformed others and these were Sengerai Manyanga of Ward 10 in Masvingo Urban, Admore Dhemba of Ward 16 in Masvingo Rural and Peter Imbayarwo of Ward 19 in Zaka for being readily available, accessible and responsive to the community needs.
Zaka had the best performing councillors who scored 53% on average while in Masvingo Rural the best had 47% and in Masvingo Urban the most outstanding councillors averaged 50% throughout 2022.
One of the categories was responsiveness where three indicators were used, the first one being the number of community invitations the councillor attends over a particular period, the second was the number of social gathering he/she attends and the number of development initiatives the councillor takes up as a result of people’s demands. Masvingo Urban the highest scored an average of 40% with lowest on 15%, Zaka’s highest scorers had 60% while the lowest had 30% and Masvingo Rural’s highest had 50% and the lowest on 35%.
Under availability participants measured three indicators as well; the number of times the councilor visited the ward; the number of consultation and feedback meetings conducted by the councilor and number of instances and platforms the councilor interacts with the community over a period of one month.
Zaka as usual had the highest on 60% and its lowest on 30%, Masvingo Urban’s highest scorer had 55% and lowest had 20% while in Masvingo Rural the highest had 55% and the lowest on 25%.
On accessibility COTRAD looked at easy of reach through online platforms and physical contact, in Zaka the best performers had 40% with lowest at 15%, in Masvingo Urban the highest were on 55% and the lowest on 20% while in Masvingo Rural the outstanding had 35% and the lowest had 10%.
“Findings indicate a need for elected officials to be accessible, available, and responsive. The three councilors were best in their respective wards, but however, the scores were very low. The three were presented with certificates” said COTRAD director Zivanai Muzorodzi.
Phinias Chekani from Jerera Growth Point in Zaka District lambasted the councillors for spending time chasing after women and Presidential inputs instead of serving the community that elected them hence the low marks earned on the scorecard.
“This is not surprising at all considering the caliber of our local authority representatives, they spend most of their time majoring on minor issues like women and input schemes that they give to their friends and cronies.
“When they campaign they promise us heaven on earth yet when it comes to service delivery dhololo, they have no time for us or supervising the Council executives as per their mandate,” said a furious Chekani.
Ward 4 resident, Susan Mukamwi said the main problem was interference by the central Government hence the powers of the elected officials were just ceremonial.
“There is need to change the local authorities law to make the elected officials more accountable to the residents, they should have executive powers especially the Mayor should be a full time executive with powers to hire and fire so that we hold them accountable.
“The current set up is tricky because most of the executives who run the Council business on day to day basis are appointed by the local board which comprise mainly members appointed by the Minister a ruling party functionary and they are bound to appoint their cronies or those aligned to the Minister or close to the ruling party.
“This compromises service delivery as we have seen now with stands being parceled to cronies and the issue of land barons being a thorn in the flesh for residents as they dish out unserviced stands despite getting the money for such services. This is so because the money they get is meant to oil the operations of the ruling party.
“All the same our councillors need to up their game in order to fulfil their election promises, they should devise ways and means to serve the residents instead of being cry babies,” said Mukamwi who is doing a degree in development studies with a South African university.
The assessment of councillors’ performance by COTRAD in Masvingo from selected wards will continue until 2024.
