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Harare Mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni discusses with German Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Thorsten Hutter at the Geographic Information Systems Conference in Harare yesterday. — (Picture by Innocent Makawa)

Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
GERMAN Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Thorsten Hutter has said Harare City Council can only achieve its vision to have world class city status by 2025 if it has competent people and dedication. Officially opening the city’s Geographic Information Systems Conference in Harare yesterday, Mr Hutter said the city should be focused on its intended goals.

“That is the right approach. You must have a vision and you must have the dedication and strength to try and implement the vision for the good of your people in Harare. You must have the dream and the vision, but you must also have the people, the staff to make it work,” he said. City of Harare embarked on the GIS programme in 2014 with the help of its sister cities of Munich (Germany), eThekwini (South Africa) and City of Bulawayo under a project titled ZIGESA, which stands for Zimbabwe, Germany and South Africa. The German government is funding the programme. Mr Hutter congratulated Harare and Munich for being twin cities for the past two decades.

“There are differences with the situation in Munich and the situation in Harare, but we can all help each other and learn from each other. Technology will improve the lives of the people in Harare.,” he said.

“You have experts, not only from Germany, but Bulawayo and City of eThekwini; with this kind of partnership, you can achieve your desired results.” Harare mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni said the excise confirmed that the city should emulate good examples from other municipalities across the globe.

“It is an exercise of “villagising” the globe, where we are picking on expertise that may be available from 10 000km from where we are, but is required and needed here more than anywhere else. We are benefiting from what you have done, and this is not a new project: it has been running for a number of years now and is delivering the competence that we seek to serve our people,” he said. Acting town clerk Mr Edmore Nhekairo said Harare had over 300 000 properties and most of its documentation had been manual.

“Our layout plans and infrastructure designs are not captured in a manner that will make the city responsive to the service demands from our residents. I want to appreciate the assistance that we got from the Germany government, financial assistance and also the infrastructure assistance that we got in terms of the base station that was established at Rowan Martin premises,” he said.