Urban local authorities in Zimbabwe and the new constitution

Urban areas have always attracted the attention of political parties due to their dense demographic compositions, hence their popularity as battle grounds among political parties. This has resulted in amendments and consolidation of local government legislation to ensure that urban local authorities enjoy only delegated powers and remain accountable to the central administration. Consequently local authorities remained creatures of statute. This tended to hamstring the operations of local authorities, as their autonomy was limited. However, with the coming in of the new constitutional dispensation in 2013, local government, for the first time, has enjoyed constitutional status. This paper seeks to unpack the content and practice of the law governing urban local authorities and the potential of this constitutional provision to promote good local governance.   Key words: Amalgamation, political parties, local authorities, local government.