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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Local Government Reform: The Zambian Case |
Author: | Chikulo, Bornwell C. |
Year: | 1994 |
Periodical: | Africa Insight |
Volume: | 24 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 133-137 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Zambia |
Subjects: | local government reform Politics and Government |
Abstract: | Zambia was among the first countries to succumb to the clamour for democracy in Africa. Pressures for multiparty democracy led to the scrapping of the one-party system on 17 December 1990 and to the introduction of political pluralism. The introduction of multiparty democracy ended the ruling party's constitutional paramountcy over the civil service and the State apparatus at all levels. As a consequence, the civil service and the entire State apparatus had to be 'de-linked' from the ruling party (UNIP). This process of de-linking was set in motion by the enactment of the Local Government Act 22 of 1991, on 28 August 1991. This Act entailed a number of structural changes. It provided for different categories of representative local councils; it introduced the principle of majority elections to councils; it provided for a system of standing and occasional committees; it gave the central government more power over local government finances; and, finally, the Act made provision for a separate cadre of local government employees by creating a unified Local Government Service. However, the institutionalization of the new system of local government presents many difficulties, finance being one of the main obstacles. Ref. |