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Leslie Gwindi

Herald Reporter
Harare’s First Street Mall will get a facelift through a renovation campaign being undertaken jointly by TV talent show StarBrite, Harare City Council, Beta Holdings and other partners.
Dubbed “Restore Harare’s Sunshine City Status”, the campaign will see sanity and cleanliness being restored to First Street.

In yesterday’s issue of The Herald, we said the building materials displayed in First Street that were put there for marketing purposes by Beta Bricks were on sale.

It has emerged that the materials were placed there as part of the facelift, as Harare moves towards restoring its Sunshine City status by 2025.

First Street, as the face of Harare, is central to the campaign.

“So far we have removed all posters, some of them dating to the Simon Chimbetu era, from the street,” said StarBrite executive director Mr Barney Mpariwa.

“We have planted flowers donated by Golden Stairs Nursery and painted street light poles and bins.

“Different corners of the street that were being used as ‘toilets’ have been cleaned and disinfected,” he  said.

Beta Holdings has donated 5 000 bricks valued at over US$750, some of which are already displayed along First Street, as they await Harare City Council to begin the renovations.

Beta Holdings representative Ms Sandra John said: “This is part of our client’s social responsibility to help the community in projects like these,” she said.

“When we were approached to be part of the initiative, we agreed immediately because it is in line with the company’s vision to help in the betterment of our environment.”

Plans are under way to install CCTVs in the mall, rid the street of illegal vendors and install more electronic billboards.

Harare City spokesperson Mr Leslie Gwindi said the bricks “will be used to pave First Street”.