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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, [email protected]

INSIZA District is working on its first-ever master plan, which will guide the district’s development trajectory in line with the Government’s inclusive transformation drive.

President Mnangagwa officially launched “A call to action- no compromise to service delivery” blue-print as part of interventions to modernise the operations of local authorities to ensure the attainment of 2030 vision targets.

According to the blueprint, the quality of service provision by local authorities should be in line with a standard upper-middle-income economy.

An urgent and immediate requirement is for local authorities to achieve acceptable service delivery levels and observe all applicable laws.

Every local authority should from an organisational, systems and physical planning perspective, be in a state to develop a road map towards a 2030 vision status.

In an interview, Insiza District Development Coordinator, Mr Zacharia Jusah, said they will roll out the “Call to Action” to the communities as their input through payment or rates is crucial in assisting the council to meet its obligation of service delivery.

“We are in the process of developing our first-ever master plan as per the directive of His Excellency President Mnangagwa. The plan will basically project how the district and the town will develop and grow in the near future,” he said.

“The master plan will control and regulate the projected development. It will also guide us through set timelines. This will be our first-ever master plan and we are targeting to have it out by June.

“We have engaged a consultant who will lead the exercise to ensure that the master plan is properly developed. The consultant’s main objective will be to consult, input the people’s thoughts and aspirations and also develop the master plan,” said Mr Jusah.

“We have also created a taskforce, which will give input on how best we can meet this target set by the President. Already the taskforce has started engagements. The members of the taskforce include myself, council CEO, council chairperson, ZRP and representatives from various ministries.”

He said for local authorities to respond to the Call for Action, there is a need for improved revenue inflows amid concerns that the council was usually collecting only 45 percent of the annual budgeted funds.

Mr Jusah said they will apply efforts to improve on revenue collection hence stakeholders such as traditional leaders will be engaged to ensure improved payment of rates and levies.

“As a local authority, we are committed to ensuring that we improve on service delivery in response to the call by the President. We have to improve infrastructure development in various sectors, be it health, education, roads, bridges among others,” he said.

“The master plan will ensure that the development that we will roll out will be in line with the issues that stakeholders want addressed.
“As a local authority, we always ensure that we are up to date with our audits so that we maintain transparency as this is a key component of service delivery.”

Mr Jusah said in a bid to ensure quality service provision in the district, infrastructure development must take centre stage in schools, clinics shopping centres, malls and housing in line with modern trends.