Councils Responsible For Attracting Investment, Not Central Government - Mutsvangwa

ZANU PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa has urged local authorities to take the initiative in attracting businesses and capital to areas of their jurisdictions instead of solely relying on funding from the central government.

While appearing on a current affairs show on ZiFM Stereo, Mutsvangwa criticised councils, particularly those led by the opposition, for their perceived failure to draw investment. Said Mutsvangwa (via Business Times):

Look, when people come to invest in a country, they don’t necessarily look at the president. Investment is done in a local authority. You want to put your factory in a specific location within a particular ward.

If the people who are running the cities cannot learn from what is being done in Mvurwi or Marondera by the tobacco farmers, it is because they are not, they shouldn’t be in those jobs in the first instance.

Mutsvangwa said that it required national government intervention to clean up Harare after the city council failed to take action.

The government invested millions in rehabilitating several major roads, including Mazoe Road and Harare Drive, in preparation for the recent SADC Summit. Said Mutsvangwa:

The president and his government intervened, they cleaned up Harare and look now, Harare is as good as can be and this is not going to be the end.

Mutsvangwa dismissed claims made by some opposition mayors that they have encountered difficulties in securing resources from the central government, including funding allocations from the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA). He said:

These mayors who we are talking about, simply don’t know their job. They don’t know, they think that money comes from the central government.

No, money comes from the hard work of their own populations who are working in businesses where the mayors and councillors have attracted businessmen to those places.

Meanwhile, the majority of mayors, chairpersons, councillors and staff from the country’s 92 local authorities, among them Harare mayor Jacob Mafume, are currently undergoing training at ZANU PF’s Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology.

Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology principal, Munyaradzi Machacha, who is also the ZANU PF National Political Commissar, is conducting the training.

More: Pindula News