Ongoing Demolitions. An Ethical Test Failure for Zim Local Government

 

By Lloyd Takawira 

Watching hopelessly as their source of livelihoods are being destroyed ,  one could not resist to drop some tears . Urbanites have endured endless torrid times from authorities who should be protecting them . However, for many Zimbabwean urbanites its suffer continue.

With an economy that was run down by decades of mismanagement, many Zimbabweans have been pushed to the informal economy as they try to ace a living from vending.

Local government, in a democratic state, is expected to be responsive to the needs of the people.  Since the local government is the primary delivery arm of a democratic state, it should provide effective and efficient local government service to the people, however for Zimbabwe, the case has been different. Personal self-interest have been subordinate to the public good in all circumstances.

The recent demolitions have exposed the rot in our local government system if not national. It must be noted that, high ethical values affect the performance of every organization. The question now is do we have ethical leaders both elected and appointed in Zimbabwe at every level of leadership. Do they even know the ethical values that they must uphold as public servants? The components (ethics and values) shape an individual’s character, as well as that of their organization (Omisore & Adeleke, 2015). However not for elites in Zimbabwe.

One is made to ask. Do these people have a reputation, do they even care for the next person, do they know that the  success of governance depends upon the conduct of themselves as public functionaries and what the public perceive about their conducts. I wonder what Mr Tafadzwa Muguti is thinking seeing so many people crying while their livelihoods have be destroyed.

Do these so called shefus of this world know that , as local government leaders they have an indispensable role to play in exacting ethical principles. In our case , the  absence of public minded leaders whose energies are not harnessed to organisational purposes is affecting the  quality of  local government service delivery (Dorasamy, 2010).  We have people who have sworn that as long as they live, there is stealing from the public coffers at whatever cost. We have people whose hearts have hardened to hard rock state because they are at the eating table.

It should be written in bold and caps that, leaders at local government level in Zimbabwe have failed the ethical test. One cannot allocate land for someone to operate , make that person pay for the space , all of a sudden disregard that , comes back to destroy the person livelihood . Even in the face of a court order in the case of Chitungwiza it could not stop demolitions to happen.

The ongoing demolition calls that for this country to self-introspect to say we need leaders who are willing to pass the ethical test and that ethical values have to be upheld by the leadership of local government, who have to create an organizational culture that directs a local government service institution to achieve its purpose.

For now , it’s the residents , civil society organizations and all interested parties that must come together to demand that :

1)Local government employees adopt an approach that can influence others to direct their actions toward the attainment of a clearly understood and well communicated ethical purpose. This shared vision and pursuit of ethical standards therefore, results in ethical behaviour guided by purpose- directed employees at the local government level.

2) Ethically-oriented local government that is not underpinned by a lack of established ethical behaviour because Unethical behaviour has a negative impact on effective and efficient local service delivery.

 Continued pooh pooing in our governance issues through unethical practices will continue to negatively affect the performance of these councils which have become bastardised entities   (Adegoroye, 2010). It is imperative that all local government functionaries upon accepting government employment recognize that they have a special duty to be open, fair and impartial in their dealings with society. (Yahya, 2006).  

For now it’s a clarion call for public servants especially those manning our councils to view ethics as choices requiring them to make decisions enabling them to lead an ethical life within the context of their relationships with others in the discharge of their responsibilities.