SIMBARASHE MTEMBO
MIRROR REPORTER

MASVINGO – Eighteen cash-strapped local authorities will spend an estimated US$10 000 each to send their town clerks, secretaries and council chief executive officers (CEOs) to the BRICS International Municipalities Forum to be held in Russia at the end of this month.
Analysts have questioned the prudence of the trip when councils in Zimbabwe are so broke that they are failing to deliver basic services including provision of water, maintaining roads and to pay workers’ salaries. Analysts described the trip as just another gravy train by council officials.
“Public entity managers in Zimbabwe lack the necessary frugality to run the economy,” said one economist who declined to be named.
Gabriel Masvora, the Director of Communications in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works confirmed the trip and said that those local authorities sanctioned to undertake the trip proved to Government that they can afford the trip.
Conspicuous by their absence on the list are Harare, Gweru and Mutare City Councils. The workshop will take place on August 27 and 28, 2024.
Masvora said for Harare, it was noted that there are several commissions investigating cases of corruption and it was therefore not prudent for that municipality to send a delegate.

BRICKS is an economic block founded in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa hence the acronym BRICS. Zimbabwe applied to be a BRICS member and the application is yet to be approved.
Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) joined the bloc this year. The bloc is advocating doing business in local currency and dumping the US$.
The memo addressed to Acting Provincial Directors for Local Government Services by the Permanent Secretary John Basera for the same Ministry says that councils will foot the travel and subsistence bills.
“Critical to note is that Local Authorities are required to meet all the Travel and Subsistence costs related to the trip,” reads part of the communique.
The Mirror is reliably informed that one of the biggest expenses for local authorities are workshop allowances for staffers and councillors which run into thousands of dollars per day per person. A source told The Mirror that local authorities are milked by staffers through workshops adding that those going to Russia are not going to pocket less than US$6 000 per delegate for small councils and US$10 000 for big ones.
The memo states that the agenda of the workshop resonates with what is prescribed in the Call to Action – No Compromise to Service Delivery blue print launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in November last year.
“An international municipalities BRICS forum will be held from 27 – 28 August at the EXPOCENTER in Moscow, Russia. The forum focuses on promotion of modern approaches and technologies in urban management, improvement of municipal infrastructure, sustainability of cities, more effective resource management and many other aspects related to the operations of Local Authorities. “In this regard, you are required to inform the following Local Authorities about the event which they should attend. The relevant procedures of allowing Council officials to travel to Russia should be conducted to enable the Ministry to process the Cabinet Authority for the delegation,” reads part of the communique.