GWERU – Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution in the Midlands Province Senator
Larry Mavima has commended government agencies for the various developmental innovations that
are being implemented in the province across all sectors.
Senator Mavima made the remarks when he officially opened the Midlands Special Provincial
Development Committee meeting at the Midlands State University in Gweru last week.
The purpose of the meeting was to review progress in the implementation of planned government
programmes and projects for 2022.
The sum total of the work that all governmental agencies are carrying out is contributing to the
development dividends that we continue to see on the ground, he said.
Senator Mavima urged governmental sectors to shift their work from their routine to pursuing
objectives and targets set out in Vision 2030 and National Developmental Strategy 1 (NDS1).
Indeed, it must become much more evident that all activities being carried out by all central
governmental agencies and local authorities in the Midlands are in sync with the same Presidential
Agenda whose overall rule is to attain an upper middle-income status by 2030, he said.
He emphasised that all governmental agencies have an obligation to ensure that the Presidential
vision is realised in the province.
He said all development plans and annual budgets of local authorities should be targeted at
contributing towards realization of Vision 2030 and NDS 1.
Local authorities’ roles, the Minister said, must expand from mere municipal services to being a
facilitator and enabler of economic development.
Senator Mavima commended the local authorities for the good work they have been doing with
respect to the implementation of devolution projects which are in different stages of completion.
He however, urged local authorities to take appropriate measures to strengthen implementation
capacity and processes to identify projects that need to be implemented.
In particular, local authorities need to employ requisite technical personnel to implement and
monitor development projects and these projects must be identified through robust public
concentration taking on board traditional leaders, members of parliament and communities
themselves, he said.
Senator Mavima emphasised that local authorities should not start new projects before finishing
current and pending ones, citing that it is slowing down the rate of development in the province.
The era of white elephants is gone and to this end you must not initiate new projects before
ongoing ones are completed,he said.