Corporate Governance in Zimbabwe’s Local Authorities: A Void in the Devolution Path

Abstract

After 41 years of democratic local governance and eight years of the new constitutionalised devolved local government system, the state of service delivery in the majority of local authorities in Zimbabwe is deplorable, as they are plagued with corporate governance maleficence. What is, however, worrying is that all these performance challenges troubling local authorities happen under the watchful eye of multiple internal and external corporate governance structures. This chapter, therefore, analyses the main challenges hampering effective corporate governance in Zimbabwe’s local authorities with a particular focus on urban councils. Drawing arguments from secondary data, the chapter makes a strong case that corporate governance in Zimbabwe’s local authorities is a void in the devolution path. This chapter regards power politics and excessive central government supervision; multiple accountability lines; and the capacity, capability and calibre of local councillors as three main challenges hampering effective local corporate governance. Against this background, the chapter concludes and recommends that there is a need for the re-engineering of corporate governance structures in local authorities. In the absence of effective and harmonised corporate governance, devolution will devolve inefficiencies and ultimately fail to achieve the desired goals.KeywordsCorporate governanceGood local governanceDevolutionLocal authoritiesZimbabwe