President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s pointed rebuke to local authorities during the Councils Indaba in Bulawayo could not have come at a more opportune time. With over 2,000 councillors and executives gathered, the President seized the moment not merely to speak, but to send a decisive message, Zimbabweans deserve better, and councils must stop making excuses and start delivering.
His remarks cut to the core of a long-standing malaise afflicting municipal governance across the country: incompetence, neglect, and a glaring absence of accountability. That the Head of State had to address such basic failures in public administration at a national conference speaks volumes about the state of local governance. It is not just a matter of underperformance, it is a breach of public trust.
Local authorities are the frontlines of development, and when they fail, it is the ordinary citizen who bears the brunt, through uncollected garbage, pothole-riddled roads, unreliable water supply, or housing backlogs. Yet, far too often, these councils operate as detached entities, locked in bureaucratic inertia, while the communities they serve sink deeper into decay.
President Mnangagwa’s emphasis on proper budgeting, resource planning, and prioritisation of employee welfare should not be treated as polite recommendations. These are fundamental obligations. A council that cannot budget transparently or ensure decent working conditions for its employees has no business holding the public purse. It is a betrayal of constitutional duty.
Moreover, the President’s philosophical reminder that “money funds ideas, it does not create them” was a subtle but sharp indictment of the reactive, unimaginative leadership pervading local authorities. Councils must go beyond routine administration. They must be drivers of innovation, community development, and social transformation. But to do that, they must first be present, capable, and committed.
That the President had to appeal for unity, “there should be no us and them, we are all us and them”, shows how deeply divided and politicised some councils have become. Governance is not theatre, and service delivery is not a partisan exercise. The needs of residents are universal: clean water, reliable roads, waste management, housing, and economic opportunity. Councillors who cannot rise above factionalism to deliver on these basics have no moral claim to public office.
What is needed now is a radical shift. Councils must be assessed not by how loudly they speak at conferences, but by the tangibility of their impact in wards and districts. Bulawayo, Harare, Mutare, and many others need urgent restoration, not of infrastructure alone, but of trust, transparency, and civic responsiveness.
The President’s warning should not be lost in the applause of a gathered crowd. It is a national call to action. Zimbabwe cannot afford local authorities that function like broken cogs in the machinery of development. Either councils evolve into effective agents of change, or they make way for those who can. The era of hollow rhetoric is over. Delivery is the new currency of relevance.
Let councils remember, service delayed is service denied. And in public office, failure is not just unfortunate, it is unforgivable.
