Greening Harare: Emerging revolution

Garikai Mazara
Whilst the vendor menace and commuter omnibus nuisance was on the verge of taking over Harare’s landscape, a slow but very significant revolution was also taking over the capital’s landscape — a revolution of a different kind. A green revolution, one would say. Whilst the argument as to who might have started the green revolution in Harare might boil down to the chicken-and-egg debate, the truth is a number of companies in the capital have since taken to greening the spaces in front of their premises, be they islands or just the open space in front.

So it is not uncommon, when driving around the capital that one comes across well-manicured and seemingly ever-green lawns, blooming flowers, paved and painted side-walks. There is a new spring in Harare’s step, so it seems.

Whilst such lush lawns were mainly a preserve of the up-market, leafy suburbs of northern Harare, that these environments are being found almost in any part of the city, irrespective of location, is due to a myriad of reasons.

Lovemore Makoroni, the complex manager for Lobel’s Bread, which might probably hold the bragging rights to have pioneered the greening of Harare, said it was all about changing the mindset, especially that of the customer.

“There is no way you can convince someone that you are doing a great job, delivering a great product, when there is no evidence of that,” he explained.

“Because we are in a food business, where cleanliness is next to godliness, it has to show in our environs and that is why we embarked on this exercise. And we have not stopped, subject to council approval, we want to sanitise all the islands up to Star FM.”

Lobel’s Bread lies along Simon Mazorodze Road, which links the capital city with the country’s oldest city, Masvingo, and it might not be much of a coincidence that using the same road, at the popular Mbudzi round-about, a similar revolution is on-going.

This time at the hands of the Harare City Council.
Emilia Mudzimbasekwa and Sylvia Mandizha are the two ladies employed by the Department of City Parks and Social Amenities to “man” the round-about.

“Everyday we come here to water the lawns,” said Emily, the more jovial of the two ladies, “and since we started greening this round-about, there has been a lot of activity here.”

Besides love-smitten couples — and even families — who come for photo shoots, the area is used for general relaxation, in the same manner that citizens find rest in the Harare Gardens and Africa Unity Square, right in the city’s centre.

The council, on the other hand, gets compensation from the photographers who pay a levy in order to provide their services. Council is maintaining the Mbudzi round-about together with the Kuwadzana one.

But the greening of Harare has not been left to the city council and Lobel’s alone, neither is it a preserve of Simon Mazorodze Road.
Approaching the headquarters of listed milk producer, Dairibord, from the Harare Agricultural Showgrounds end, one cannot help but marvel at the colourful flowers that adorn the area just opposite the robots.

Similarly, Cresta Jameson Hotel, right in the centre of the city, just like the Holiday Inn Hotel a few metres “upstream”, has taken to converting all the open space in front of it to green acres of space.

This has added some bit of colour to the hustle and bustle of Samora Machel, which on any given hour of the day, is one of the busiest streets in the capital.

Fuel service stations have not been left in the revolution, with Trek being arguably the flag-bearer when it comes to sprucing up front office spaces.

Except the Charter Road Trek, which should have been constricted by space, almost all the Trek service stations in the capital have taken to greening their environs.

And metal sculpture has not been left behind in the beautification of the capital, with a number of islands and round-abouts in the capital now adorning huge metal sculptures of different wild animals.

For example, the round-about where Harare Drive meets Simon Mazorodze Road, there are huge sculptures of elephants.
Newlands shopping centre has not been spared the sculptures, which add not only to the aesthetic beauty of the city but also adds a cultural heritage edge to it.

Makoroni could not have summed the mood any better: “We should not always wait for central Government or the city council to add colour and beauty to our city, what are we doing as individuals, as companies, to make sure we attract the attention that we deserve, that we want?
“And we should not always put profits first, rather profits should come as a result of the good work that one should be doing.”