Bring back the sunshine City

and what I saw left me asking many questions.
The road past Matapi Police Station is in a state of disrepair. You would think gold panners left gullies on the road. General filth around the area is hard to comprehend. Not to be outdone is the havoc wreaked by urban farming. The farmers are not only growing maize along the Mukuvisi riverbank, but also on small islands on the river.
Is anyone in charge in Harare? Why has the situation deteriorated to such levels? What may put a smile on some faces is the artwork on some of the outer walls of the hostels. It is beautiful artwork of happy faces of children, despite the filth surrounding the hostel outer walls. Imagine, most national celebrations and important international soccer matches are held in Rufaro Stadium with all the dirt surrounding the area.
To say the city fathers must be ashamed is not enough. They should just resign. To think that residents are powerless to do anything about this state of affairs is to admit defeat. How can people sell wares sitting on stones along the roads in Mbare, even snaking around Rufaro Stadium? What can the police do even if Mbare police station is a stone’s throw from the mess? Why send tractors to cut grass and teams of workmen to spruce up affluent suburbs while, where these workers reside are neglected. It does not make sense. How can we blame the whites or the settlers for this state of disrepair everywhere in the high density areas?
Maybe, the councillors should not shoulder all the blame. What about the city council workers themselves? The majority of them reside in these areas and yet their bosses send them to affluent suburbs to clean up while their own areas are drowning in uncollected garbage and broken sewer pipes.
How humiliating? What is the solution? Should local government be run by political parties? These questions have been on the minds of the Harare Residents Association for a number of years.
The time has come for the residents to claim their capital city. How can this be done? Yes, there is no doubt that the residents themselves belong to various parties but, surely, should party loyalty be more important than the service delivery all residents are entitled to? It has been reported that the majority of councillors do not own property in Harare. How can they be expected to serve the interest of ratepayers?
Then the solution could be to amend the law that regulates local government elections to exclude anyone without property from standing as a candidate for local elections. This could be a start. The next requirement should be that the candidate should not have any debts owed to council from no-payment of rates and water for the past three years before the election.
Another suggestion that has been floated around is that the Combined Residents Associations should field their own candidates using the amended regulations.
If the council lost party control, could it be more accountable to the residents? Many residents believe that, taking politics out of local city councils could improve the running of these local areas. Many prominent residents are refusing to stand on political tickets.
In many countries, the source of friction in running capital cities has been if the opposition controls the capital city. To illustrate this enmity between political parties for the control of the capital city is what happened in UK in 1979 when the Conservatives won power and came into office. The former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher dissolved the London Greater Council than share power with the then mayor, Ken Livingstone, a Labour party member.
The London Council was only restored when the Labour Party won the elections in 1997. Today, with the Conservative and Liberal coalition in the power, London Council is controlled by the ruling party with Boris Johnson, a conservative party member, as mayor.
There will never be peace in the capital city unless the ruling party controls the city administration. Any talk of compromise is a waste of time in politics.
In a developing country, the only way to prevent this political rivalry is for the residents associations to put up candidates for elections and to stipulate that property owners should be the candidates for city council.
There may be an outcry that many young people may be excluded from standing as candidates.
But, the term City Fathers, speaks for itself. It does not refer to city youth or young people but to mature property owners. The state of disrepair of the city of Harare has reached unprecedented proportions.
The fear for disease outbreaks is real. The state of the roads especially in high density areas is unacceptable.
Many appeals have been made for those residents and government departments that owe millions of dollars to pay up. The city of Harare requires every dime it is owed but the residents do not deserve the calibre of councillors who have been running the affairs of the city for many years.
The present and previous administrations have let the residents down because of political differences and infighting. A few years ago, the professional staff of the city of Harare was suspended and then restored to their posts after approaching the courts, a situation which short changed the residents. Many people do not believe the problem is with the workers but with the politicisation of local government affairs to the detriment of service delivery.