Beitbridge Council bylaws not gazetted 5 years on
ELLEN MLAMBO
BEITBRIDGE – Beitbridge Town Council has been waiting for more than five years to have 14 bylaws it submitted to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works gazetted.
This is making law and order enforcement difficult in the town.
Loud Ramakgapola, the local authority’s town clerk said this during a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts verification visit on solid waste management held at the council chambers recently.
Members of the Committee expressed shock at the revelation and said that they were going to come up with recommendations and a timeframe for Local Government to speedily deal with the bylaws.
The Committee chaired by Gweru Urban MP Brian Dube is pursuing findings in the Auditor General’s report relating to solid waste management in urban settlements in Zimbabwe.
Ramakgapola was answering a question raised by Guruve South MP, Patrick Dutiro who wanted to know any bylaws the local authority had come up with relating to solid waste management.
Some of the bylaws submitted to the Ministry but not gazetted are the anti- litter, those that deal with the issue of controlling sound, open air churches, natural resources and the control of stray animals especially cattle, donkeys and dogs that roam the border town’s streets.
Dube vowed to assist Beitbridge Town Council to get the bylaws gazetted. He said that council cannot be blamed for failing to maintain a clean city because it is hamstrung by the absence of bylaws which have not been gazetted by the responsible Ministry.
“The challenge we have is that while council approves bylaws, it is the final process that has not been forth coming. We submitted 14 bylaws among them the anti- litter bylaw but the lock jam is that they are not gazetted more than five years later.
“Once council approves a bylaw, it is submitted to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, thereafter their legal section submit them to the Auditor General’s office for gazetting,” said Ramakgapola.
“I am happy that this visit has revealed to us a serious problem in the Ministry of Local Government where bylaws are not being gazetted into statutory instruments. We are going to recommend that the Ministry acts with speed.
“We will come out with recommendations and timeframes to the Ministry. We are supposed to act as Parliament because if Beitbridge is saying they have such a problem relating to how they can enforce cleanliness because their bylaw has not been gazetted by the Minister, in as much as we may want to blame them, they are hamstrung because they can’t fine people,” said Dube.
