Service delivery, new infrastructure/equipment boost for Binga – herald

Source: Service delivery, new infrastructure/equipment boost for Binga – herald

Judith Phiri judith.phiri@sundaynews.co.zw

THE commissioning of a council clinic, motorbikes, road equipment and service vehicles in Binga is expected to boost service delivery, as Government moves to equip the local authority with infrastructure and resources aimed at improving access to essential services across the district.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony in Binga on Thursday, Minister of Local Government and Public Works Daniel Garwe said Government remained committed to ensuring that no community was left behind in the delivery of services.

“I have come to Binga today not merely to hand over assets, but to reaffirm, in the clearest and most unequivocal terms, that this Government sees Binga, hears Binga and is committed to ensure that Binga is not left behind.

“For too long, this district, like many of our border and remote rural districts, has borne the weight of geographic isolation, of underinvestment, and of being spoken about rather than invested in.

Today marks another decisive step in changing that narrative,” he said.

Minister Garwe said the assets being commissioned were expected to improve access to health services, strengthen road maintenance and enhance the capacity of councillors and council officials to serve communities more effectively.

“What we gather to commission today is not a trifling matter. We are commissioning a Council clinic that will bring health services closer to the people of this district. We are commissioning road equipment that will empower this council to open up and maintain roads that have for too long cut off communities from schools, clinics, markets, and each other, particularly during the rainy season when our people in the more remote wards of this district are effectively marooned.”

The minister said Government was also commissioning two service vehicles to improve the mobility and responsiveness of the council’s technical and administrative staff.

The package also includes a vehicle for the council chairperson to enable the elected leadership to provide oversight across the vast district and ensure greater engagement with communities.

“We’re commissioning 32 motorbikes for our councillors, one for every ward, together with four additional operational motorbikes, ensuring that, for the first time in a very long time, every single councillor in Binga will have the means to physically reach every household under their representation,” said the minister.

Minister Garwe said Binga’s vast size, sparse population and difficult terrain had often limited councillors’ ability to effectively engage with residents.

“These ensure that representation in this district is not confined to those wards nearest the district centre, but extends fully and equally to every ward, every village, and every household across Binga,” said Minister Garwe.

He said service delivery remained the key measure of success for local authorities and should result in tangible improvements in people’s lives.

“A strategy must be lived and felt, in the reduced distance a pregnant mother in a remote ward of Binga must now travel to reach basic health care, in the improved condition of the road that carries produce to market and children to school, in the speed with which a councillor can respond to a community’s concerns, and in the confidence residents have that when they raise an issue, someone, equipped with the means to act, will come,” he added.

“For a district such as Binga, where communities have historically battled drought, where the road network has for decades constrained access to markets and services, and where the distances between wards are considerable, service delivery cannot be an abstract concept discussed only in council chambers.”

This must be delivered on wheels, on graded roads and through functioning clinics, said the minister.

He said, in line with President Mnangagwa’s directive that there should be no compromise on service delivery, residents and local leaders had a responsibility to safeguard the newly commissioned assets and ensure they were put to effective use.

“To our Councillors these motorbikes must be seen upon the roads of Binga, not parked idly in yards. I expect every councillor to use this asset to reach every corner of their ward, to hear directly from residents and to feed those concerns back into this council’s planning and budgeting processes. Representation that does not reach the people it represents is representation in name only.”

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