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Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
Harare City Council is set to appoint a business development manager to ensure the effective operations of its Business Development Unit.

Harare recently said it was in full support of the Government’s “Zimbabwe is open for Business” mantra and had added the line “Harare is ready for investment”.

Council wants its investment arm, Sunshine Holdings, to second an official to the Business Development Unit, arguing that the unit needed to be capacitated.

According to the recent minutes of the Business Committee, councillors expressed concern that reports for consideration by the committee were not forthcoming due to vacantposts in the Business Development Unit.

“The committee noted that since the departure of the incumbent business development manager, appointments on acting capacities had been made to officials who were seized with their day-to-day duties,” reads the minutes of the committee.

“This has adversely affected operations of council businesses as well as of the committee.

“The committee was, therefore, of the view that in the interim, the acting town clerk urgently appoints an official to act as Business Development Unit manager so as to ensure effective operations of council business.”

During the discussion, the committee also recommended the secondment of an official from the Harare Sunshine Holdings to the Business Development Unit.

The committee also heard that the city’s parking concern City Parking had donated two visual display units and computers for traffic enforcement unit.

“Acting chamber secretary reported that the donation would assist Traffic Enforcement in monitoring parking violations and enforce traffic by-laws and ultimately improve efficiency and revenue collection,” reads the minutes.

“He further advised that City Park would proceed to train traffic enforcement officers on the use of the equipment. During discussion, the committee appreciated the donation and tasked acting chamber secretary to engage City Parking, expressing the committee’s gratitude towards the donation.”

The committee also requested the acting chamber secretary to ascertain the value of the donated equipment and report to the committee.

A lax in traffic enforcement has seen pirate taxis continue to cause chaos in the city centre, with council conceding it does not have the capacity to rid the central business district of the illegal passenger-ferrying vehicles. Council introduced shuttle services in a bid to bring normalcy in the city centre, but it failed to work as pirate taxis are still on the roads.

They pick up and drop commuters at undesignated points in violation of road traffic regulations.