Zimbabwean News You Can Trust
The Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD) held a multi stakeholder meeting in Harare with parliamentarians, churches and legal experts with the aim of to pushing the Government to enact a law that enables local councils to share ideas with independent organizations within their communities on how to use devolution funds for development.
The ZHOCD meeting was intent on prodding Government to come up with supporting legislation that allows urban and rural councils to share knowledge of using devolution funds with independent organizations, such as the church, persons with disabilities and organizations which represent residents.
Speaking during the meeting, Mr. Kelvin Mayoyo, representing the Ministry of Local Government, said it was now a mandate for every council to “report every month, quarterly, and later give an annual report on what happened to devolution funds,” to scale up development in urban and rural communities.
Honorable Albert Nyakuedzwa, who was also part of the program, applauded ZHOCD for sharing knowledge about devolution in rural communities, insisting that the Government was also doing the same at Provincial level.
“We applaud the church for disseminating information about devolution in our rural communities. In various provinces, we have an office of the Minister of State distributing information at a Provincial level,” he said.
Advocate Soneni Hlatshwayo from the legal service department at the Ministry of the Local Government Ministry said they would soon come up with a law to ensure that devolution funds benefit local communities.
“It pleases us that they are other independent bodies to help other people in our communities know about devolution. I want to tell you that alignment and review of our legislation is the key result area we have this year. We also need to facilitate that we procure the services of the consultant, so that we get assistance to come up with the Bill. I’m happy to tell you that this Bill is in place,” she said.
Devolution was adopted as a key component of the new 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe, which, in Chapter 14, states it is desirable to ensure the preservation of national unity in Zimbabwe, and the citizen’s democratic participation in government and communities.
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), General Secretary Rev Wilfred Dimingu, and the Union for the Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe Africa (UDACIZA), General Secretary Rev Innocent Chitanda also graced the occasion.
The ZHOCD has been holding multi stakeholder meetings and outreach programmes to empower communities as well as the disabled. Some of the initiatives that they have held include the mental health awareness campaign, engagement with persons living with disabilities as well as hosting an interactive workshop with top economists to speak on the economy.
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