THIS week our senior business reporter Freeman Makopa (FM) caught up with Harare mayor Jacob Mafume (JM, pictured). In an exclusive interview, Mafume discussed a range of pressing issues affecting the four million residents of the capital. He provided insights into the complexities of leading Harare from a political standpoint. Below are excerpts from the interview:
FM: This is your second stint as Harare mayor. When you arrived for your first term, what did you find?
JM: What I found was a place where we needed to deal with the systems. Virtually, most of the systems had collapsed. We had at one time more than nine acting directors. People were on suspension, arrested, and there was a huge conflict between the government and the city council. There was a lot of chaos.
FM: What more were you dealing with?
JM: Corruption, political interference, and a hostile environment between council and the government. We were generally pulling in different directions. It surprised me a lot because I did not know the extent of council's reach into people’s lives. The city council is probably the most important organisation within the city. People need to focus very much in terms of the competencies of staff, and even the competencies and training of councillors.
FM: This is an important assignment, is it?
JM: The congestion, lack of water, lighting, and a lot of those things are important. Many things that are done by city councils elsewhere were taken away by central government in terms of revenues, such as Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) and many issues that are supposed to be superintended by the local council. There is overreach from central government.
Look at Zesa, the City of Harare once owned the Harare Power Station. Zesa took our facilities for free. The next day, they started charging us for electricity. They said they were going to pay us royalties and they were going to pay us compensation.
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FM: And what happened?
JM: They have since forgotten to pay for those things. But yet, they charge us every day. In the 1980s, when the electricity bill was taken away from the rates bill, that is when cities across the country started collapsing.
People used to know where the house that did not pay rates by having no lights. So that stigma went away when Zesa took over. Not only did they take away Zesa and the electricity bill, they took away roads. At some time, they also wanted to take away water.
FM: Why would this be of concern?
JM: If you do that, you remove service delivery issues from the body that is able to react to individual concerns. I believe Zesa must worry about the provision of electricity (to) big consumers and allow councils to pay in bulk to Zesa and capacitate them to collect from residents when they collect rates.
We are discussing with the Ministry of Finance and executive chairperson of Zesa (Sydney Gata), who was manager when this fatal decision was made. Now that he is back, he will be able to breathe a kiss of life to city council by correcting what clearly has turned out to be a monumental error.
To his credit, he has admitted that we should find a way of working together with Zesa, to re-link the rates bill with the electricity bill. That will assist us to get the necessary revenues that we require.
FM: How important is this?
JM: The Zesa option, if implemented, will enable us to deal with those that are not paying. We will be able to collect the money and act against them in a more scientific manner, which will restore fundamentals for the City of Harare.
FM: How much is City of Harare owed?
JM: In terms of the US dollar equivalence, it is in excess of US$100 million. We are owed a lot of money by the government and various actors in and around the government.
FM: At this rate of defaults, can Harare be transformed to a city like Cape Town?
JM: The beauty about Harare is that it has the DNA of a functional city. It is a city that was well planned from the start. I have travelled to more than 22 countries, more than 22 capitals in Africa and beyond. We are close to water systems. We have a functional railway system, good weather and wide roads. The City of Harare has the DNA of a modern city.
All we need to do is to improve its fundamentals. It can be the best place to live in. We have got a lot of space to go a little bit wider. And we can renew even some of our poor suburbs that are well planned, except those that were then invaded during the madness that occurred (before).
FM: Opposition-led councils have been blamed for ruining town and cities. What is your comment?
JM: It takes two to tango. It cannot be the opposition cities. I like the spirit that has been brought by the Southern African Development Community where people have realised the capital city is our city. You know, the pot and the kettle have, since time immemorial, been engaged in an argument of who is blacker than the other, with both of them sitting on the same fire. So, we are sitting on a fire, this is our city. We must do all that we can to create fundamentals.
FM: Are you being sabotaged by government?
JM: Yes. Like I said, there was a cat and mouse relationship between the council and central government, with the other chasing and the other running away. The cat and mouse relationship can never be beneficial. You take away things like Zinara. Even buying things has been put in procurement. That clearly is self-defeatist by the government and creates a situation where the cities are hamstrung or their hands are tied. They cannot proceed to deliver services.
FM: In terms of rural urban migration, how many new people arrivein Harare every year?
JM: We are prepared to handle them. Harare is the city of opportunity. We should be prepared to handle all that comes. We are only a city that is creeping towards three million.
But the big cities of this world have 24 million people, 30 million people. So ours is still a small city by any standards. We should be able to improve our efficiency and accommodate more people.
FM: How much are you getting per month? What is your expenditure?
JM: Our expenditure is huge. It should be around US$3 million to US$5 million thereabouts, per month. Our water bill is around US$1,8 million per month. Then we have salaries that are creeping to another US$1 million. We have fuel, and power bills.
FM: How are you financing the deficit?
JM: We have not been getting loans. What we have been doing is that when we do not have the money, we do not pay, we simply do not pay and then it becomes problematic.
FM: If the government is to avail may be at least US$850 million today, will all the roads be fixed?
JM: We are talking about billions. Remember this Harare, when we say three to four million people, it means we are a population. We superintend a city that is a population bigger than other countries.
Botswana has two million people. And it has a president. Namibia has one million people, it has a president. We are bigger than almost 15 countries in Africa. Harare has four million people, but it only has a mayor, not a president. But these are huge things that we are talking about.
We are talking of billions of dollars for us to deal with the neglect that has happened in Harare. We actually need a huge injection of government guarantee – for water plants, roads, bypasses, rail system, infrastructure, flats, social housing. We are making our people build houses for themselves. It is an anomaly. A person must just get a key and get into a house.
FM: Can you give us an update about the Geo Pomona deal?
JM: I have made my views known on that deal. But at the present moment, like I said earlier, I am just the mayor of Harare. There are others who are the cabinet of Zimbabwe. The cabinet needs wisdom. I will not use the other word.
But the company that needs wisdom thinks that it is the solution. And at times we do not run these processes on our own. We run them in conjunction with others. That is their viewpoint. We will see how far that goes.
