Show us council minutes, don’t tell us about stupid organisations Chombo told
Norton legislator Temba Mliswa has advised the Deputy Minister of Local Government Marian Chombo to produce council minutes requesting for fire tenders and not talk about meeting with fire chiefs.
Deputy Minister Chombo told Parliament that the requests for the fire tenders came through the fire chiefs who also provided the specifications to government.
However, the ministry is dragging to clarify if there are in position of such requests or not, as some local authorities have disowned the alleged requests.
Speaking in the National Assembly, Mliswa said the Belarus deal is a government to government agreement and has nothing to do with local authorities.
He said if there is a request from councils, the government must produce them and not talk about an association of fire chiefs.
‘’When it is Government to Government arrangement, it is Government to Government, it is not Government to council. Councils have the right to twin with any council in the world. That is why there are twinning arrangements.
‘’When Government to Government arrangement is in place, it is Government that is responsible for that debt not the ratepayers. We must distinguish that because they are coming in with Government to Government, that is agreement between the Government of Zimbabwe and the Government of Belarus.
‘’The Government has the right to enter into an agreement with any Government on issues which they themselves use their money and not the ratepayers’ money. We must understand that first of all. Do not think we are stupid by saying Government to Government.
‘’There is no agreement between the Zimbabwe Government and the local authorities to supply them with fire tenders. Where is the agreement? Do not tell us about these stupid organisations that you want to pick today, firemen, this that and so forth.
‘’The point of clarity that I have is, what do those firemen have to do with them sitting down and so forth? The firemen work through certain structures. There are three tiers of Government. If there is a head of that fireman they report to the CEO of the Town Council who then reports to the full council and they make a resolution on that. We want to talk about institutions which have power.
‘’The councils themselves have got to resolve because power also devolves. We are now taking away the fact that power devolves. Where do the local authorities derive their power from constitutionally when Central Government is coming in? Where do the Provincial Councils derive their power? There are those three tiers of Government which must be respected at the end of day where any council or provincial resolution is respected.
‘’The issue which is critical is whether there was a request or resolution by these councils because they meet from time to time to say ‘Government can you go and procure for us?’
‘’We want to know, do you have minutes because we do not want you to tell us things which are not written down which you are just making up. In finishing this, this issue at the end of the day is a burden on Government but because somebody got into this deal – we have got South Africa and other countries and there are other local authorities that have those fire tenders.
‘’The service delivery of the people is more important. People do not have water or health facilities and you are giving them fire tenders, what is more important? ‘’The local authorities must determine their service delivery needs and not Central Government. Government gives the 5% and all it must do is to monitor and evaluate that 5%.
Show us council minutes, don’t tell us about stupid organisations Chombo told
