Lupane Local Board set for inaugural elections

Thembelihle Mhlanga 

Lupane Local Board (LLB) is billed for its first ever election this year since its establishment in 1999, thanks to new delimitation boundaries.

Residents of Lupane will have an opportunity to participate in such an election having voted to elect Kusile Rural District Council (KRDC) in previous elections. The excitement of being  a stand-alone authority came as a result of the 2022 Delimitation Report that severed LLB from KRDC concession.

A member of Lupane Residents and Ratepayers Association Trust (LURRA) who requested anonymity for professional reasons said this was a welcome move as in the past, residents voted for a councillor who could not  attend to their issues.

“In past elections, we have been voting for the Matshiya ward councillor who has no influence at LLB, we thank the delimitation process that separated LLB from KRDC, paving way for us to vote for our own councillors,” said the LURRA member.

Nkululeko Ndimande a resident in Lupane also expressed excitement on the development as he said residents can now interact with their own elected councillors as opposed to the “caretakers.”

“I am very excited by this development that will facilitate  voting for our own councillors unlike in the past when we were given caretakers that we never got to meet,” said Ndimande.

He added that it will be easier for  residents to demand transparency and accountability for better service delivery and social cohesion from farmiliar faces.

 Section 161 subsection 5 of the Zimbabwean Constitution states that in delimiting the boundaries of wards, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must ensure that no ward is divided between two or more local authorities and in dividing Zimbabwe into wards and constituencies, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must, in respect of any area, give due consideration and that no one ward belongs to more than one authority.  Before the latest delimitation It was a unique set up where LLB residents voted for ward 15 councilor who did not serve them as they were left to  service of caretakers due to the previous delimitation which did not  physically separate the two. As such, the caretakers were much responsive to the demands of the Minister of Local Government and residents had little  say in terms of making demands for quality service from the caretakers.

The new delimitation created four wards for LLB that will facilitate for residents to directly elect their councilors and demand social accountability. 

LLB was gazetted in 1999 and has been run by caretakers who are appointed by the Minister of Local Government and currently Monica Ngwenya, Lupane District Development Coordinator, Ennette Sithole and Lupane State University Vice Chancellor Professor Pardon Kuipa are the Caretakers.