Rural local government finance in Zimbabwe: The case of Gokwe District Council
| Author | N. D. Mutizwa‐Mangiza |
| Date | 01 February 1992 |
| Published date | 01 February 1992 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230120109 |
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL.
12,111-122 (1992)
Rural local government finance in Zimbabwe: the case
of
Gokwe District Council
N.
D. MUTIZWA-MANGIZA
University
of
Zimbabwe
SUMMARY
In
spite
of
the many problems inherited at independence in
1980,
rural local government
in
Zimbabwe
is,
in
comparison with many other countries in the region, fairly robust
and
well organized. This paper examines the Gokwe District Council, one
of
the more dynamic
and potentially
very
prosperous rural local authorities
in
the
country. The case study shows
that
the
achievements of the council can be explained not only in terms
of
factors internal
to
the district,
but
also
in
terms
of
the
overall
system of local government and finance in
Zimbabwe.
LOCAL
GOVERNMENT
POLICY
IN
ZIMBABWE
At independence in 1980, Zimbabwe inherited a system of local government divided
on the basis of race. The system consisted of, on the one hand, rural councils and
urban councils for the white settler population and, on the other, rural African
councils for the oppressed black majority. Rural councils covered the white-owned
large-scale commercial fanning areas, while urban councils covered the major urban
settlements, which were themselves all located in areas classified as ‘European’. Afri-
can councils covered areas classified as ‘African’, principally the then tribal trust
lands, which are now known as communal lands.’
By 1980, local government in most
of
rural Zimbabwe had disintegrated following
a decade of intensified guerilla insurgency. One of the urgent tasks
of
independent
Zimbabwe’s first government was the reorganization of rural local government. This
was done through a series of Acts of Parliament and national political directives
(Mutizwa-Mangiza, 1989; Helmsing, 1989). The first measure was the enactment
of the District Councils Act in 1980, which consolidated the more than
200
excessively
fragmented African Councils into
55
larger and administratively more viable authori-
ties. At this stage, the rural local government system remained divided, with the
new district councils covering the communal lands and rural councils (as before)
covering the commercial farming areas. The second reform measure was initiated
in 1989 through the first Prime Minister’s Directive on Decentralization, which was
quickly given legal standing through the enactment of the Provincial Government
Dr Mutizwa-Mangiza is at the Department
of
Urban and Rural Planning, University
of
Zimbabwe,
Harare, Zimbabwe.
’
Urban
local
government in Zimbabwe is examined in more detail in Wekwete’s paper
on
Harare City
Council in this issue. A broader discussion
of
the development
of
local
government in Zimbabwe is
found
in Mutizwa-Mangiza
(1985
and
1986).
027 1-2075/92/0
101
1
1-1
2$06.00
0
1992
by
John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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