Accountability apertures at the local government level in zimbabwe

The enactment of the new Constitution of Zimbabwe in 2013 opened avenues for local government accountability. However, a decade has passed since the enactment of the Constitution of Zimbabwe but little headway toward achieving accountability at the local government level has been achieved. The main objective of the study is to identify gaps in vertical, horizontal, and downward accountability in local government in Zimbabwe. The study applied the Public Choice theory and the Principal-Agency theory to better understand the state of accountability at the local government level in Zimbabwe. The study made use of extant secondary qualitative literature research methods to gather information. Research findings indicate that vertical accountability is mostly affected by a lack of compliance by local governments to follow legislative provisions that compel them to account to the parent Ministry, bureaucratic pathologies, and a lack of financial resources by the parent Ministry to effectively monitor local governments. Horizontal accountability is mostly affected by councils’ staff failing to report to councilors and councilors failing to comprehend technical policy and budget issues due to limited academic capabilities. Downward accountability is mostly affected by legislative gaps that fail to promote grassroots participation, political polarisation, and exclusion of residents in decision-making by local authorities.