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Reflections of a jungle: Harare needs its order restored in 2018

Leroy Dzenga Features Writer
The Harare Central Business was in a total mess in 2017 with the vendor menace in the purported Sunshine City showing no sign of disappearing. For a city targeting world class status in 2025, Harare underperformed beyond words as it served as a citadel of confusion and chaos, especially in the city centre.

Throughout the year Harare’s struggle against illegal vending did not show any tangible results Pavements were congested throughout the year, despite the council engaging in cat and mouse races with the informal retailers.

The repeated strategy towards sellers who would sell the same wares as registered retailers on their doorstep was not working. Registered operators were paying taxes plus regulatory fees while unregulated transactions happened right at their doorstep at a lesser price.

Many thought in 2017 designated selling points like the one in Graniteside, near Coca Cola would be put to good use, but the place remained a white elephant with the city centre bearing the brunt of the facilities’ underuse. Vendors were not the only informal businesses which created headaches for frequenters in the Harare CBD. Pirate taxis, known as Mshika-shika, have turned the city into a danger zone.

Vendors displaying vegetables and fruits along Mbuya Nehanda street in Harare yesterday as the local authority intends to launch yet another operation to drive illegal vendors to disginated stalls – Picture by Kudakwashe Hunda

Motorists and pedestrians dread some areas of the city centre like the Leopold Takawira and Jason Moyo intersection which is ironically located a stone’s throw away from the Harare City Council’s offices. Repeated efforts to do away with the menacing pirate taxis have not made any visible difference, the informal shuttles still exist.

Some have suggested that the city fathers may have to find ways to regularise the taxis instead of chasing after them, which obviously has not brought meaningful results in 2017. The expanding transport system in Zimbabwe has presented headaches in the Harare CBD with kombis being the perennial frontrunners in the chaotic scenes witnessed in Harare.

For people who have a designated parking bay in the Coventry Road parking bay, there is excessive commuter omnibus presence in the Central Business District which does not justify the $500 000 reportedly spent in its construction.

Although the speed chases between council vehicles and kombis were considerably lower in 2017, the year saw the city fathers fail to come up with a meaningful solution towards decongesting the city centre of vehicular traffic. In July this year, The Herald Insight wrote a story on the ablution crisis in Harare’s CBD and it has not been solved yet.

Kombis plying kuwadzana route load passengers at an undesignated point along Speke Avenue in Harare yesterday. The local authority intends to launch yet another operation to drive all transport operators to use designated points – Picture by Kudakwashe Hunda

People who frequent the city centre exceed the facilities ready to service them by a margin. A walk through places like the NSSA car park, formerly Ximex Mall, is telling on the shortage of toilets as the stench of human waste is unbearable around the area.

Recreational spaces like the Harare Gardens have become an eyesore because of people who divert them from their intended use as they avoid the few public toilets in the CBD which are poorly maintained.

During the course of the year it was a stress for parents who visited the CBD with their children who had to buy token products in retail outlets to be allowed to access into their restrooms. The unwritten rule for those who spend time in the CBD is, never to drink tap water even when visited by insurmountable thirst because it is contaminated.

With visible sediments of slimy material which denote old pipes, some of which haven’t been replaced since the pre-independence era, the water is greyish when it is at its clearest. Sometimes it leaves black or greenish residue in containers. When these pipes burst, it takes lengthy periods before they are attended to, as was the case at corner Nelson Mandela and First Street in Harare.

The result is streams of supposedly clean water and poodles which should not be seen in the city centre of a capital city like Harare. As 2018 approaches, Harare residents need to be more responsible in disposing of their litter especially after consuming packaged food.

The kaylite ban which came into force around July this year, showed a great difference. The city centre, which had been defaced by a carpet of white polystyrene material, regained part of its glow. Council street cleaners who have been diligent in their discharge of duty had their work cut out by this ban.

Besides the lack of citizen responsibility in reducing littering antics, the city council also slacked in some instances. Piles of rubbish would collect at areas like the Copacabana bus terminus, producing a stink and a swarm of flies which posed a health risk to the many informal traders as well as commuters who regularly use facilities. Rubbish collection was not frequent enough for such a busy place.

It seems motorists are among the few who can attest to a good year of visiting the CBD. City parking stewards multi-platform payment methods, which made payment convenient. Motorists were also grateful for the reversal on the $1 per entry billing system which was deemed to be unfair. The changes, which were announced in December, are among the few joys CBD frequenters can celebrate after a year that had very few positives.

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