Lupane public in the dark on PCs

Thembelihle Mhlanga

The general public of Lupane has expressed ignorance on the functions of provincial councils since they were introduced.

Nkosikhona Ngwenya a resident of Gegema village in Dandanda ward under Kusile Rural District(KRDC)  professed ignorance of work that has been done by the provincial council.

“I have only heard that there is such a council but I don’t even know what these people are doing. I have never seen or heard of their duties and who they are,”  said Ngwenya.

Veteran politician Dumisani Moyo of Mzola ward said the onus is on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) as the electoral body mandated to carry out voter education, to educate the citizens on what the provincial council is all about. 

“IZEC kufanele  yazise uzulu ngezikhundla  zonke ezincintiswayo and how the provincial councils come in, their duties and relevance in the governing structure because as of now, we are in the dark about this PC thing” said Moyo.

Casuel Moyo  of Rural Communities Empowerment Trust (RUCET), said since the inclusion of the councils, their work has barely been visible as he  attributed their invisibility to the non-election of the Provincial Council Chair.

“The functionality of the PC has never been seen after the past two elections, in 2013 and 2018 and I think  the cause is the non-election of the  Provincial Council Chairperson. since his role has been replaced by the appointment of the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution which compromises the functionality of the council,” said Moyo.

Christopher Dube a member of Lupane Residents and Ratepayers Association  Trust(LURRA) said the functions of the PC have been deliberately concealed because if the functions are followed to the letter to protect the Minister of Local Government.

“The councils’ functions are kept under wraps because the roles given to this Council reduce the influence of the Minister of Local Government and creates a mini provincial autonomy. That is why the Provincial Councils Act has not been put in place,” Dube said.

Chapter fourteen and sections 268 and 269 of the Constitution provides for the establishment of Provincial and Metropolitan councils respectively. 

Eighth Schedule of the Electoral Act states how the provincial council members are nominated.  

A party that has not filed a party-list nomination for election to the provincial council is not eligible to be allocated seats in the provincial council. Parties that nominated party-list candidates are referred to as “participating parties”. for example, if seven parties, A, B, C, D, E, F and G are the parties that nominated party-list candidates for the provincial council elections. The electoral district has three constituencies namely X, Y and Z.

 The provincial elections officer must list the participating parties on a table, starting with the party that received the most votes and ending with the party that received the least and showing the votes cast for the participating parties in each of the constituencies.

 Next, the provincial elections officer must determine the quota by dividing the total number of votes cast for the participating parties by the number ten (the number of seats) with any fraction obtained being disregarded. 

The number of votes cast for each of the remaining political parties is divided by the quota to determine the number of seats to be provisionally allocated to each party and to ascertain the number of votes  remain unallocated.