LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND THE CHALLENGES OF SERVICE DELIVERY: ZIMBABWE IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Abstract

It is often the case that local government, its roles and responsibilities, and the challenges it encounters in its effort to fulfill its mandate are often derided, disparaged and conviniently minimalised. For purposes of contributing towards the debate on policy review and knowledge generation, the article focuses the spotlight on local government in Zimbabwe, particularly its efforts to marshall communities for socioeconomic progress through local public service delivery. In doing so, it turns to the principle of subsidiarity, the theory of local self-governance and document analysis to engage the challenges confronted by local government in Zimbabwe from an evidence-based vantage point, much of it drawn, developed and synthesized from the perspectives of a few representative nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) historically supporting local government regeneration in its various forms in the country. The article finds that the lack of resources and capacity in some local governments to effectively deliver services, the risk of central imposition in local government decision-making and the dearth of public participation processes are some of the challenges limiting the local units of government in Zimbabwe to fulfill their assigned mandate of local public service delivery.