By Beatific Gumbwanda
Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Daniel Garwe, has criticized local authorities for poor service delivery, which has led to low revenue collection and growing salary debts.
This has resulted in workers going months without salaries, despite councils spending large amounts on international trips.
This came out during a recent parliamentary session, where Member of Parliament for Chiredzi Central, Ropafadzo Makumire, questioned Garwe about the government’s efforts to ensure Chiredzi Town Council employees receive their overdue salaries.
Makumire highlighted the council’s struggles to collect money from residents, stating that significant debt had accumulated.
He pointed out that Chiredzi Council spent money on international trips, such as those to Russia and Korea, which cost about US$50,000 each. Garwe responded by stating that the responsibility for paying employees’ salaries lies solely with Chiredzi Town Council, not the government.
As of June 17, 2025, Chiredzi Town Council’s salary arrears totaled ZWL 8.1 million. The council was owed ZWL 163,586,424 by residents and stakeholders for property taxes and service charges, with residents owing about 56% of the amount, translating to ZWL 92 million.
In his response Garwe emphasized that the Ministry of Local Government does not micromanage local authorities and promised to send an investigation team to determine the reasons behind the council’s struggles.
“While we are aware of the major challenges faced by local authorities, we can only act once we are informed. Now that we understand there are serious difficulties, we will send an investigation team to ascertain whether the council is failing to collect payments or if residents are refusing to pay. We aim to ensure a solution that benefits both the council and its employees as well as the residents,” Garwe said.
He stressed that local authorities should provide adequate services if they expect residents to pay their bills.
“The challenge lies in the fact that many of our local authorities are not delivering services but still expect residents to pay. We want to ensure that all local authorities, not just Chiredzi, adhere to the minimum service delivery standards policy that His Excellency the President announced recently, so that we can provide services and encourage residents to fulfil their payment obligations,” he said.
