The government is sprucing up Harare roads in a last-ditch attempt to give the capital a much-needed fresh look ahead of next month’s Sadc summit.
It has also taken over some services that are normally under the City of Harare such as waste management, public transport management and road rehabilitation on the basis that the local authority has no capacity to undertake such projects.
They are not taking over these services for free. The government will recover the expenses when it releases devolution funds.
The rehabilitation works have given Harare a fresh look. However, it is coming at a cost.
The revamp, which appears to be a last minute rush, has birthed traffic congestion with motorists spending two to three hours on a trip that would last under 45 minutes before the road rehabilitation programme.
This means productive hours are lost in congestion. The commuting public is forced to walk for about 5km to avoid congestion to and from work.
The contractors that are working on the roads are taking ages, amid claims they are protesting the late payment. Government is known for delaying payment to contractors which has hampered their operations. Some contractors have packed their machinery, abandoning projects.
The rush to rehabilitate the roads is pointing to one thing: failure to plan.
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If you don't plan, you are planning to fail, so said founding father of the United States Benjamin Franklin.
Officially, government knew last year that the country will be hosting the summit, although bureaucrats in the corridors of power knew well before the public announcement was made.
A serious administration would have begun preparations for that meeting early to avoid the inconveniences that motorists and the commuting public are facing now.
However, it seems the administration’s plate was full.
With a rush to complete the rehabilitation works before the Sadc summit, there is a danger that some contractors will do a shoddy job.
Early this year, a contractor was ordered to redo rehabilitation works on Lorraine Drive after the road developed some potholes, barely a month after the company had finished the works.
Transport and Infrastructural Development minister Felix Mhona told Parliament that government had put contractors on notice over shoddy works.
“For the past weeks Lorraine Drive has been topical. The contractors failed dismally and as government we have summoned the contractors who also admitted that they did a shoddy job.
“We do not pay when work is not done properly and we have instructed the contractor to take corrective measures, where they failed,” Mhona told Parliament in February.
In Harare’s central business, police have been deployed to flush out vendors and pirate taxis.
It is a cat-and-mouse game as vendors and the pirate taxis are staying put and defending their only source of livelihood due to a tough economic environment which has spawned company closures.
The drive to spruce up the country's infrastructure must also spread to other provinces, but with better planning.
