Story by Theophilus Chuma
LONG standing challenges at the Harare City Council including the absence of a Chamber Secretary and a substantive Director of Finance, as well as a flawed billing system, have drowned the capital city’s Vision 2025, in which the capital targeted to be a world class city.
With dry water taps, uncollected garbage and burst sewer trunks contaminating water sources, Harare’s dream of becoming a world class city remains very much like an the historical ophir, an imaginary nation filled with gold.
“The sewer is filling up the water bodies and this has seriously affected the water sources which supply the residents,” said Combined Harare Residents Association director, Mr Reuben Akili.
Against global best practices, which rank the performance of cities according to progress on key aspects such as infrastructure, health care as well as service delivery, experts say the local authority has failed to prioritise a number of areas in the capital city.
Non-working traffic lights, uncollected garbage as well as dilapidated street lighting facilities point to a deep sitting crisis within the local authority.
These are simple issues which the local authority can address but they have been left to deteriorate to the current levels where they are now in a sorry state,” noted Harare Residents Trust director, Mr Precious Shumba.
Local governance experts point to a number of factors that have wreaked havoc on Harare’s 2025 vision, including allegations of corruption through a shambolic billing system, the absence of a Chamber Secretary, a substantive Finance Director as well as a substantive Human Capital Director.
“There is no way the local authority can run without the Chamber Secretary, and a Finance Director. Harare City has not had substantive people in these offices for the past years. Added to this is the absence of a billing system within the local authority. Without a proper billing system they cannot track their revenue as a result there have allegations of massive corruption as a result of the flawed billing system,” he added.
A commission of inquiry has since been set up to investigate these millstones that have yoked the local authority over many years.
Harare Mayor, Councillor Jacob Mafume admits the world class city status vision will be missed, while stating the local authority is now racing against time to plug the gaps for a Chamber Secretary, Finance Director as well as a Human Capital Director.
“This was one of the major challenges that affected the vision and we are now looking to rectify,” said Mafume.
Experts say Town House has been turned into a citadel of lethargy which has come with a huge cost on the city.
