FARAI MATEBVU

BUHERA – Chief Nyashanu, leading one of the largest chieftainships in the country has dismissed the Government’s devolution programme, as elitist, exclusionary and fueling corruption.

Addressing a district devolution indaba at Muzokomba High School in Buhera on April 25, 2022 Chief Nyashanu said devolution programmes lacked governance systems around them to keep out corruption. He said in the majority of cases devolution was achieving the opposite of what they were intended for.

The workshop which was organized by Union for Development of Apostolic and Zionist churches in Zimbabwe Africa (UDACIZA) was attended by various stakeholder groups including community leaders, traditional chiefs, Government officials, churches, youth, women and people living with disabilities. There were also numerous presentations by youth, women, and Government and Parliament representatives.

Meanwhile Marian Tsvakai of UDACIZA, a consortium of  Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD) told The Mirror on the sidelines of the workshop that people throughout Buhera were complaining that they are not involved or consulted on devolution issues.

“People are calling for a broader and inclusive participatory model that captures the voices of the poor. The role of the church is to unite people for peace, unity and development,” said Tsvakai

The goals of the indaba were to reflect and engage on devolution issues.

Chief Nyashanu said that instead of roping in people to participate in district and national activities, devolution is elitist and remains a talk show in that view. He said in Buhera, in particular, the programme was fueling corruption particularly at Buhera District Council.

As a result, he said, devolution has failed to resolve local problems caused by natural disaster ie; bad roads, destroyed schools and other housing infrastructure and secure households against effects of climate change.

He said service provision like registry has not been decentralized in Buhera despite devolution.

“We experience disasters year in year out but we still have archaic mechanisms to curb them. Development information is not getting through to villagers and climate change, early child marriages and rape are all ravaging our people,” added Nyashanu.

His remarks are supported by a report compiled by a consortium of churches under ZHOCD. The consortium seeks to promote civic participation in devolution programmes and decentralise processes in marginalized rural areas.

The four page report which took two years to be completed since the project started in 2020 concludes that there is no coherent road map from Government to involve rural voices in devolution programs and called on for the redress of the situation in order to uplift the district’s economy.

“We have not seen a change, a clear signal that informs of devolution governance. Devolution currently underway is elitist and largely a talk show and it is in our view escalating corruption and further eliminating poor voices in the development discourse,” said Chief Nyashanu.

The devolution program is supported by by the European Union and TroiCare in several parts of Manicaland.

Buhera Disability Trust ExecutiveDirector Crimson Mangwiro called Government and supporting partners to erect disability friendly infrastructure in the district to allow access to critical services which are largely lacking.

“Right now we are grappling with such problems. We can’t access critical services critical to us due to unavailability of such infrastructure” “Devolution must be triggered by this need” said Mangwiro.https://masvingomirror.com/