Recent events in town where aspiring candidates from the ruling Zanu PF government went on a borehole drilling exercise around Masvingo city in the urban constituency’s four vacant wards as a way believed to be aimed at drumming up support for the forthcoming by-elections set for March 26 has shown how much disorder is taking toll in the country.
There have been allegations that the boreholes were drilled without the blessing of the local authority Masvingo City Council in terms of the citing of the proper area to place the boreholes so as to safeguard the town’s sewerage system as lain pipes become vulnerable to damage by the water rigs.
The powers that usurp the local authority tantamount to abuse of office from whoever disrespected the channel of consulting council and the engineer responsible for such works in the authority and will only result in disorder. Quite a number of individuals have the capacity to drill boreholes at respective places of residence, but they always respect the by-laws by seeking approval of council before embarking on such kinds of projects. Being in the ruling party should not be abused as a tool of disrespect of set structures and thus the relevant channels need to be strictly followed whenever such developments take place.
In as much as easing the burden of erratic water supplies on residents is appreciated, the respect for existence of other equally important infrastructure should be considered before any drilling is undertaken so that safety of such facilities like sewer pipes is guaranteed altogether.
Setting precedence for lawlessness has never been good for a nation especially deliberately by-passing an authority because of relegating to lower levels of superiority along political affiliation hence no need for respect.
Apart from that, there is need for clarification on the funds being used to undertake such programmes after information doing rounds pointed to the ‘abuse’ of devolution funds to garner support for ruling party candidates. There is need for strong accountability mechanisms and checks as well as balances to be put in place to safeguard the siphoning of public funds towards political party projects and thus protection from abuse of state establishments like the District Development Fund (DDF) to gain political mileage.
Transparency should prevail if ever the aim of devolution is to be realized that is decentralizing power from central government to lower tiers of governance and avoid a scenario in which the theoretical model talks about devolution while in practice central government calls the shots from determining which projects should be undertaken at the expense of the community as abeneficiary.
If the projects of boreholes are meant for the benefit of residents or even communities, why would government prioritize areas where there are by-elections like Masvingo Urban wards 3, 4, 5 and 7, then Chivi South and Mwenezi East where two parliamentary seats lie vacant.
