Debt Amnesty for Zimbabwe’s Local Government: Issues, Effects and Implications

Abstract

This article that made use of the utilitarian framework of analysis, focused on Ignatius Chombo, a former Zimbabwean Minister of Local Government, who issued an order granting debt amnesty to residents of the 92 local government councils in the nation from 2009 to 2013. The utilitarian concept of municipal government, developed by John Stuart Mill, places a strong emphasis on maximising the well-being or overall pleasure of the greatest number of people when making decisions. The article probed the Minister's choice by using a utilitarian framework of analysis and a documentary research methodology. Whilst it found that the decision curried favour with certain segments of the population, especially the indigent who were struggling to settle their bills for service delivery, it also found it repugnant, among others, for the reason that it ingrained a culture of non-payment for local government services consumed by residents that subsists up to now. It also found that, despite the fact that the policy was created a little more than ten years ago, the full consequence of the minister's decision has not yet been fully absorbed.