The Council and Municipal Economy, the trusted strategy for growth

Chris Chenga

The recent elections were nuanced from previous campaign cycles as they seemed to raise more focus on Councilors, beyond typical partisan affiliation of years past. There was a particular emphasis on the quality of candidates in terms of their academic, professional, and civic backgrounds amongst other considerations. It really seemed as if constituents finally understood that these qualities had a bearing on the ability of Councilors to meet expected deliverables. Ultimately though, partisan affiliation determined the outcome of seats.

City and town councils are institutions that require exceptional management and administration. The decay in many constituencies across the country resembles the poor selection of incumbents to execute such. This matter has notable economic significance, as beyond political representation, Councilors can be effectual drivers of economic opportunity and growth for their direct constituents. Oftentimes, there is an abstract expectation for “government” to create jobs, but there is a notable absence in questioning whether or not a Councilor has opened such opportunity? Councilors are rigidly perceived as entities to ensure service delivery, merely middlemen between constituent and big government. But while central governments concededly have broad economic agendas, there is a fair argument in that Councilors are best placed to construct specific economic development plans for their constituencies.

There is a broad misinterpretation in society that companies and investors only pay attention to Presidential elections or final parliamentary seating as per political parties. Rather, serious focus is put on the elected incumbents within range of direct business activity and investment premises. Consider mining operations where capital investment is relatively high going up to millions of dollars, most of it concentrated within a direct geographical radius where operations, environmental, and community stakeholders all form the ecosystem of the business. The elected incumbent of that constituency is important.

For an economy without much economic activity in both urban and rural constituencies, perhaps thorough consideration must be given to Councilors having greater conception ability to initiating economic opportunity. For instance, starting from the low activity base and informalisation in many regions there is real need for specific economic appraisal and planning by Councilors of their direct constituencies. A lot of city and town councils are still dependent on spatial and master plans as designed in Rhodesian times. Logically through the development in technology and its influence on society, these initial plans may not be so aligned to economic opportunities of the future. New thinking and planning is needed. For Councilors with persuasive vision, an opportunity already exists in bringing stakeholders into data gathering, research structuring, and information selling to interested third parties such as investors. Most constituencies simply lack real data that may lend some conviction of economic opportunity. This data and information is desirable to any entity with commercial interest.

Many cities across the country are primed for urban renewal projects, especially with the added advantage of new technology enterprises trying to enter decayed domains. Consider that a lot of alternative energy ventures cannot take place without redoing infrastructure in many urban cities. Economically savvy Councilors would technically and financially leverage the investment interest of green technology companies for urban renewal projects. Many private utility companies can be persuaded into subsidizing development projects, as this creates a paying population to recoup their infrastructure investment. For instance, independent power producers have a vested interest in the development of public housing and recreational facilities as these are in turn customers who provide revenue for payback of their investment through long term payment of tariffs. Since 2013, Zimbabwe’s central government has met less than 11% of their budgeted infrastructure spending targets. This dependence on central government is unsustainable and unreliable. Infrastructure spending can come, and should come from competing private infrastructure providers.

In major cities across the country, shopping centers have become run down and vacant due to low surrounding housing and recreational facilities. These are matters best resolved by sound urban renewal ventures, most suitably led by Councilors and not central government. As aforementioned earlier, diligent investors into real estate – whether into private or listed entities such as Old Mutual and First Mutual- would research the local incumbents where property developments are targeted. These investors would interrogate the incumbents’ ability to create economic activity around property developments, and this would be a strong factor in their investment decisions into the real estate holders. It is true in an erudite economy, that the MP or Councilor in say, Chitungwiza, can determine the investment decisions of investors.

Prominent scholars such as Nasim Taleb have argued for more decentralized structures of economic governance, with the notion that decentralized structures such as those in Switzerland and Germany are good for fiscal accountability. Budgeting is more transparent as revenues and expenditures are contracted to focus on each constituency. Central government has been issuing Treasury bills, which is monetarily intrusive to the entire economy, when perhaps much of the expenditure supported by these bills could be financed by identified entities with a vested stake in respective constituencies. Central government budgeting dilutes clarity of these expenditures.

A final consideration is that of using Councillorship and MPs as a means to evaluate future national leadership. The China economic zones model is not only an economic imperative but one of evaluating how well politicians run economies. It is a model that increases one’s territory as they are seen to be effective in small zones. This would befit a future Zimbabwean electoral selection process as many at the top of our national politics would struggle to lead simple constituencies. The Council and Municipal Economy is a trusted strategy for economic opportunity and growth. Partisanship has failed many constituencies, we should be open to trying something new.