Sunshine City status still elusive

By Michael Chideme 23/12/2009

WITH the ushering in of a new and democratically elected council, Harare residents thought all their service delivery problems had been solved.

Residents placed all their faith in the age-old cliché “new brooms sweep cleaner”.

Even before the new council led by prominent Harare lawyer Mr Muchadeyi Masunda had “put shoulders to the wheel” residents, ratepayers and the business community had invested all their confidence in the new administration.

Management played a part in the failure to deliver services as they “privatised information” about important events and deals entered into by previous councils leading to running battles throughout the year at the expense of structured policies on service delivery.

But Mr Masunda is upbeat with the “progress” made by his council. During a recent full council meeting he beat his own chest saying his council had performed very well.

“We have achieved quite a lot. Evidence of what we have done is there for the whole world to see,” he said.

But back to the business of council, a spirit of inherent bad faith characterised operations from day one with Town Clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi on the receiving end of councillors’ ire.

There are, however, areas that council has managed to improve but for as long as there is no full package — the service delivery record will always be tainted.

Comparisons with past-appointed commissions were readily made in anticipation of changed fortunes for Harare. Rubbish dumps left behind by the Sekesai Makwavarara commission are still evidently uncollected.

The council assumed office on July 1, 2008 but to this day uncollected garbage still litters suburban streets and shopping centres. Garbage-blocked streets are almost the norm in Mbare, Highfield and Kuwadzana, just to name a few neglected suburbs.

The threat of cholera still looms high. The city has not yet revamped its refuse collection fleet.

Efficient refuse collection is one of the benchmarks for the effectiveness of a local authority.

Revenue collection is still at its lowest with the city owed in excess of US$28 million as of October. Residents are protesting payments of rates and other charges because of poor service delivery and the fact that some of the charges are inordinately very high in comparison to the salary scales obtaining in the civil service where the majority of employed residents work.

The civil service employs the majority of Harare residents, but a cursory look shows that city fees are pegged along salaries paid by council itself. Since when have council salaries been the benchmark for city charges?

City roads are still not the best. They are still a far cry from what city roads should be. Council has been patching potholes here and there but that has not calmed the city’s restive motorists who feel shortchanged and even abused.

Inasfar as the city roads are concerned the city still has miles to go to win the hearts and souls of the travelling residents.

The Masunda council joins previous councils and city commissions who were found guilty of neglecting the city’s motor vehicle fleet.

Go to the Waste Management depot in Graniteside, the automotive yard, Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital and the Municipal Police headquarters and you are sure to be greeted by hordes of abandoned vehicles — all gathering dust and being cannibalised.

That Mr Masunda has chosen to refer to the automotive workshops as a graveyard bears full testimony of the rot in the management systems at Town House.

The chaos at city markets especially at Mupedzanhamo and Mbare Musika has done nothing to raise the performance graph of the new administration. Farmers supplying farm produce still sleep in the open despite paying to the city on a daily basis.

Instead of focusing on the elimination of vendors from Mupedzanhamo — the council should have simply added more vending space in response to the huge backlog. Elimination by substitution has never solved issues of demand. The luxury vehicle-shopping spree again tainted council operations. At a time the city was evidently not collecting garbage, not paying attention to roads — huge sums of money were splashed on a mayoral fleet.

Attempts were also made to purchase top-of-the-range SUVs for senior managers. While no one would be against rewarding good service delivery, the timing was unfortunate.

On a positive note the city’s health delivery system has relatively remained of choice because it is affordable and is usually stocked with drugs.

Still on the positives the present council will also go down in history as the one that resolved outstanding labour issues, some which had taken close to a decade to settle.

Engineer Christopher Magwenzi Zvobgo, who has been away from office for the past nine years, got his job back as did city treasurer Mr Misheck Mubvumbi.

However, the council failed to resolve the issue of “double directors” with the city treasury and health departments having two heads each.

At the moment, all departments have substantive heads, something that has been lacking at Town House for several years.

The quality of debate during full council meetings has somehow improved. When the councillors got into office they were obsessed with attacking anything perceived to have Zanu-PF links. What they forgot was that Zanu-PF had been in power for a long time for anything good or bad not to be associated with it.

Councillors went to the extent of opposing even projects that would give them credit at the end of their terms of office. To mind come such projects as the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Express (Airport Road) and the Warren Hills Golf Course Housing Project.

Because of the bickering, construction of the road will not beat the 2010 deadline where thousands of tourists are expected to use Harare as their entry point into Southern Africa. Council withdrew its engineers from the project.

This thwarts efforts by bodies like the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority which has gone on a full fledged campaign to woo tourists into Zimbabwe ahead of the soccer showcase with promises of renting out accommodation in the capital.

Some councillors did not contribute anything during full council meetings while others earned themselves titles of “Water Mouth” because even when it was not necessary they stood up to contribute.

The water and sanitation department managed to demonstrate that progress could indeed take place in Harare thanks to a once off US$17,1 million from Government. Old, corroded and collapsed steel pipes were replaced mainly in the city centre while sewer pipes were also replaced in the suburban areas of Mabvuku, Tafara, Budiriro, Glen View, Highfield and Kuwadzana.

That achievement should not be relegated to 2009. The city should, in fact, have a forward-looking programme that allows the water and sewer pipe replacement to continue.

Overall, the new council brought hope but with each passing day that hope is evaporating. Maybe the councillors should borrow from Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, who said “councils should invest more in community projects to endear themselves with the people”.

He made the point when he addressed Chitungwiza councillors in reference to a skewed budget that saw 70 percent of collected revenue going towards salaries and benefits of workers and councillors.