FINALLY, the dream dies, 2025 is here today.
I shed no tears.
I disowned this misplaced mantra some years ago when I was still leading this council.
As usual, there was a sustained attempt to carry the empty noises on to as late as last night.
There have been 4 (and a half) mayors since I left Trauma Centre (aka Town House Harare) in 2018.
None of them should really be individually blamed for this collapsed dream.
Keep Reading
- Harare cancels Pomona waste deal
- Devolution gains remain a mirage
- Harare cancels Pomona waste deal
- Pomona saga: Harare handed shock US$750k ‘garbage’ bill
My own predecessor, Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda, as far back as 2008, described Harare City Council (HCC) as moribund — a fatally fitting description.
At the very same time this dream was being crafted, the city lost an effective and direct US$1 billion:
lIn March 2013, when the then Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo awarded hefty salaries to all levels of HCC workers, and
lIn July 2013, in an electioneering shenanigan, the same Local Government as minister wrote off US$300 million rates payable.
This was close to 30 months’ revenues — with zero compensation from the government.
Mathematically, my 2013 council had 50% of its possible success chopped off weeks before we set foot at Town House . . . a miracle we lasted.
HCC has not yet recovered from both the direct and indirect pains of those ministerial signatures.
My own estimate is that the indirect costs of just those two directives add another US$2 billion minimum haemorrhage to HCC.
Until there is convergence of power with willpower in what must be done, there is no room for positive dreams for the city.
Nightmares will be the order of the broad day.
Until the key ingredients of running even a normal city are restored, forget about a world-class city.
The following key factors are fundamental to the revival of HCC:
- People:
Elected and Executive leadership? Residents and ratepayers?
Can you match any of these humans to their counterparts in the countries and cities we dream to be?
None of these categories of people would make it in Cape Town, Kigali, Munich, etc.
I broadly mean none.
There are no saints — “hapana mutsvene”.
- Laws:
Power and authority to drive council must be clearly vested in those answerable for performance.
Chapter 14 of the new Constitution of Zimbabwe speaks to devolution, which has been trampled upon for 11 years.
- Government:
I pray that Acting President Kembo Mohadi reads this.
A world-class government whose performance and leadership we can all be proud of is what it takes to drive municipalities.
The government has reflected more as a disabler, politically, than an enabler to performance
Our government, unlike in other countries, does not provide municipal funding to local authorities.
Some cities get as much as 70% municipal funding support from their governments.
- Economy
Cities are not islands, but parts of the mainland.
It is impossible to aspire for success to a municipality in a failed economy.
Just the currencies applicable in Zimbabwe on their own have caused havoc to the capital city.
HCC, on its own, is a mini-government, as big as 10 to 15 small government ministries combined.
- Financial management
This city has been compliant or is up to date with external audits only once in over 25 years in 2017.
The city is not known for its wisdom in allocating the limited resources best.
Rogue procurement, sport, salaries, over-employment, workshops and travel, etc, are among the culprit line items.
The performances of the city’s huge land bank, its properties and business ventures continue to be a joke.
The city’s revenue assurance model is comical currently.
- Infrastructure:
Municipal infrastructure, like most public utility works the world over, is multi-generational, cross-generational, inter-generational — which is why the Ian-Smith-was-Better debate was raging last week.
I use the vernacular saying Chisi hachiyeri musi wacharimwa to reflect the deferred impacts of decisions made (or not made) by decision-makers.
We are battling with a 60-year-old water treatment and supply system — Mayor Morton Jaffray is now not around to be praised or blamed.
You all face the serving mayor for today’s answers to yesterday’s plans and yesterday’s projects.
We can blame the current leadership for monthly water treatment chemical shortages etc, but not for infrastructure needs, which are a good three decades behind.
Large-scale infrastructure globally is not rates-funded, but rather done in State-assisted, multi-institutional frameworks.
How sad that Zimbabweans expect parking fees to build dams.
- Goodwill and branding
Municipalities draw a lot of support from the goodwill they carry.
HCC has a poor record, world record loading.
Among other sore red flags, you cannot imagine any capital city whose mayors and town clerks have been arrested in office more than the Zimbabwe capital in the last 20 years.
In our media age, how many negative stories pop up when anything about HCC is seached on the web? How many good ones?
Let the dead dream be buried, I shed no tears.
- Ben Manyenyeni is the former mayor of Harare, having served from 2013 to 2018.