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Lovemore Chikova Development Dialogue

It has since become clear even to the staunchest supporter of the opposition that the ambition to develop urban areas to the desired levels cannot be achieved under councillors from the opposition.

Harare, with its ambitions to become a world class city by 2025, is a good case study on that.

On paper, there is all that is right in the development plans of Harare, but it is in practice where the problem has become insurmountable.

And there lies the problem — glaring failure of the opposition councillors to put their words and ambitious projects into action.

In short, the opposition councillors have failed to develop Harare in the last 20 years they have been at the helm, and voting for them in the forthcoming by-elections and the harmonised elections will be a futile exercise.

Today, those entrusted with running Harare are stinking with corruption, with councillors and managers parcelling out land to their cronies and for profit.

This is why residents no longer have any reason to retain them come the by-elections next month and eventually the harmonised elections in 2023.

The opposition has since demonstrated that it has no residents at heart as shown by the city officials’ actions with regards to poor service delivery.

They have failed to attract any meaningful investments into the city, instead leaving everything to central Government to make interventions.

The first question residents, who are religiously paying their rates, should ask is: Where is our money going?

The city council cannot perform even the basics of its obligations like collecting refuse, cleaning the streets and ensuring there is order in the central business district.

Come the by-elections on March 26, the residents will be confronted with a duty to make the right choices to inject fresh ideas into the running of the city affairs.

It will be folly for them to retain the opposition councillors who have already demonstrated they do not believe in delivering services to the people.

Among all the political parties that will contest in the by-elections, it is Zanu PF that has been doing a lot to show the party cares for the residents.

We have seen the party intervening on the maintenance of roads by giving a fresh look to major arteries that link the city centre with various suburbs.

Stinking corruption

The Harare City Council under the opposition has simply become the most corrupt council in the country.

Instead of concentrating on service delivery, the councillors and management are busy lining up their pockets through dubious deals, mainly with regards to the allocation of land.

There are no proper land administration systems in place, and this is a deliberate move to ensure the councillors can exploit the loophole to further their corrupt activities.

This has resulted in the institution of a haphazard allocation of land that has bred corruption monsters in the opposition councillors and managers.

When the opposition councillors got into office 20 years ago, they disregarded the existing land data bank, opening up the allocation of land to corruption since anyone could claim a piece of land and start parcelling it out.

Fake land use and development plans started being drafted, some illegally changing land use to the detriment of residents.

Land set aside as wetlands and for recreational purposes was now being turned into residential and commercial stands which councillors and officials sold at exorbitant prices to the unsuspecting land seekers.

As a result, many of the councillors and officials were arrested after thorough investigations by the authorities and their cases are still pending before the courts.

This is why residents should make smart choices in the forthcoming by-elections next month and the harmonised elections in 2023.

While their cases are still pending in the courts, residents should treat these councillors as criminals by virtue of their names being associated with corruption.

The death of service delivery

Why Harare city councillors cannot fix such a simple task as collecting garbage leaves residents wondering at the efficacy of retaining them in the forthcoming elections.

Collecting garbage and cleaning the city is one of the basic expectations on the deliverables of a city council.

But it seems this simple task has eluded the opposition councillors who seem not to care about making the city clean.

Let us face reality, Harare is a very small city in terms of the area size as compared to many other cities where you do not see litter everywhere.

Just why then Harare is so dirty baffles everyone.

What is clear is that the city councillors have given up on collecting garbage, a clear indication that they are no longer fit to continue presiding over council issues.

While the failed city councillors and managers take every opportunity to explain to anyone who cares to listen that they are aiming for world class status by 2025, they seem oblivious of the fact that uncollected garbage is downgrading the city’s status daily.

Garbage does not grow into a “mountain” overnight, and this means those responsible for the city affairs have been watching while the rubbish gather.

In terms of water provision, the city councillors have totally failed to provide residents with potable water for a long time.

They have lowered the city’s capacity to provide adequate and reliable supplies of water, resulting in residents turning to unreliable sources that expose them to diseases.

Residents have read from time to time about the city councillors and managers’ penchant for corrupt activities when it comes to funds that are meant to improve water supplies.

Harare is being run by people who want to focus on enriching themselves instead of making life easier for the residents.

The residents are aware the city officials have been talking about fixing issues at Morton Jaffray water works for years, but they still face days without running water.

These are the same councillors and officials who take every opportunity to talk about fixing Harare sewer, yet residents are still battling with rivers of flowing sewage.

This has been attributed to the intermittent outbreaks of diseases such as cholera and typhoid in the city, for which those running the city affairs must be blamed.

Sewer outbursts are a result of years of neglect by the opposition councillors who seem to take comfort in taking residents for granted.

Driving on Harare’s roads has of late become a nightmare, with the negligence, especially in western suburbs, having reached alarming levels.

It seems the councillors lack capacity to direct officials to pay attention to the deteriorating road infrastructure.

The tarred roads are fast disappearing under the watch of the city councillors, with potholes multiplying on a daily basis.

At one time it was widely reported that councillors owned commuter buses, hence the promotion of lawlessness on the city roads, with the council doing nothing to stop that.

Now that the commuter omnibuses have been banned, the roads have been taken over by small vehicles driven by people who do not care about their safety and that of others on the road.

Yet the city councillors watch through windows to their chambers at Town House while drivers of these vehicles continue to operate as law unto themselves.

Residents are aware that if those in charge of the city want to end this menace they can do it within days.

But they are choosing to promote lawlessness and congestion in the central business centre because of their failure to act.

When opposition councillors took over the affairs of Harare, they threw away good corporate governance, resulting in the chaos that characterises the city today.

There are double payments of salaries that have been going on at the council for nearly two years now.

This started when the city officials suspended a substantial number of the workers, including some senior managers, and went on to appoint others in an acting capacity.

Those suspended are still receiving their salaries and benefits, while those in the acting capacities are receiving the same benefits.

That Harare’s management is chaotic is actually an understatement, it is dysfunctional.

Residents cannot continue under such an untenable situation.

The good news is that they have an opportunity to end this madness by voting out opposition councillors come the March 26 by-elections and the harmonised elections next year.

At the moment, Zanu PF is the only party with a proven and tested capacity to address the problems bedevilling Harare, with almost all of them created by the opposition councillors and their management.