LCC to break up into 7 municipalities

Wed, 07 Jun 2017 11:51:13 +0000

By KALOBWE BWALYA

LUSAKA City Council (LCC) will be segmented into seven main municipalities, representing the number of constituencies in the city, a development expected to improve service delivery and create competition, says Local Government minister Vincent Mwale.

Mr Mwale said Lusaka’s population had increased beyond the council’s capacity to deliver quality services to the people, prompting his ministry to come up with a plan to segment it into municipalities.

Mr Mwale said effective from January next year, Lusaka, Ndola and Kitwe councils would be split into municipalities so that their service delivery could improve.

He explained that, once segmented, Munali constituency will handle its problems just like Kanyama, Chawama, Mandevu and other constituencies, and that Ndola and Kitwe will also be zoned into municipalities.

He said when he featured on the PF Interactive Forum in Lusaka on Sunday evening that the ministry was however empowered in the new Constitution to create local boards to have council officers and all personnel in each municipality to reflect what obtained in the city council.

“The council will remain to give oversight, collect fees from all the areas and be able to break the same money into those municipalities. But what we will see is competition amongst all the municipalities and that will provide the services that we need and all that is in line with our decentralization policy.

“This will improve service delivery and create competition among municipalities. Munali will handle its problems just like Kanyama and other constituencies; the LCC will just provide overseership to all the seven municipalities.

“We are not fully satisfied as Government how the local authorities are performing at the moment and we want to make sure that they are equal to the task and so what we have done first of all is to make sure that there is decentralization, to make sure that the councils are able to provide all the services that we required, starting from education services to health services to everything else that falls under the council,’’ he said.

Mr Mwale explained that the process has already started and he had written to the council because they were empowered in the new Constitution under the Local Government Act to create what were known as management boards. “We want to make sure that people participate in decisions that are made at the local level and we want to make sure that people can monitor the services being provided by the local councils and that they are part of the governance system and when that happens you will see enhanced accountability and transparency because people are placed at the centre,” he said.

Meanwhile, Government has released the K50 million Constituency Development Funds for 72 constituencies and that the remaining ones will receive the money as soon as funds were available.