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The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) Friday engaged multi-stakeholders like parliamentarians, Harare residents, Persons With Disabilities (PWD) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to share insights on how the country should embrace devolution from central government and at local level.
Addressing journalists after a meeting with multi-stakeholders in Harare, the General Secretary of ZCC, Reverent Wilfred Dimingu, acknowledged the presence of parliamentarians, adding the church hopes their “support will go a long way in realizing and achieving the results of the devolution process”.
Reverent Dimingu also urged Christians and every Zimbabwean to participate in the 2025 budget consultation process to share inputs on things that will change their welfare and livelihoods.
“Today we have these conversations with parliamentarians, and we are so thankful for this process of pushing for devolution. We hope this support will take us a long way as a country in realizing and achieving the results of the devolution process.
“As a church, we are calling upon all the Christians and those who are not in our country to participate in budget consultation processes, and to give their input of what kind of budget they want, sharing things that matter for their welfare,” said Dimingu.
Member of Parliament (MP) for Makoni South, Albert Nyakuedzwa, who was also part of the meeting, hailed the Church’s engagement, insisting it provides a roadmap for lawmakers to enact legislation that comes from the people.
“We have come as parliamentarians to hear what the church is doing on devolution. As members of parliament, it’s our job to hear what comes from the people, so that we enact laws that come from the people, not laws that come from parliamentarians,” he said.
Meanwhile, Harare Residents Trust (HRT) president Precious Shumba took time to explain how the central government is compromising the operations of devolution at a local level, giving an example of what happened at the Pomona Dumpsite deal.
He said “On the issue of the Pomona dumpsite, the city of Harare made a resolution to reverse the engagement of the contracted company to deal with the Pomona dumpsite, but the national government issued a statement saying a local organ can’t overturn a decision made at a national government level that alone tells you where real powers and responsibility are housed.
“When we talk about devolution, we are talking about the failure of the national government to put it as a priority. Devolution is not a priority when it comes to the transfer of powers, it is not practically transferred, and this is the reason we are having these meetings with the church.”
ZCC meeting was the church’s continuation of engagements with multi-stakeholders to push for the devolution agenda and advocacy plan at the national level, while accelerating for the enactment of subsidiary legislation on devolution.
The church body is also currently doing consultations with various stakeholders, like parliamentarians and persons with disabilities, to find missing areas to be added to the Disability Bill when it is signed into law.