Harare 2022 budget, another talk show

Blessings Chidakwa Municipal Reporter

It is that time of the year again when local authorities across the country present their budgets, and on Tuesday, Harare City Council presented its $41,8 billion budget for the 2022.

However, just like it has been the case in the past decade, the Harare budget presentation was another talk show from the MDC-Alliance (MDC-A) led council.

A close analysis of Tuesday’s proposed budget and that of last year showed that the city officials are taking ratepayers for a ride.

There was nothing new from the proposed budget — it simply lacked application of the mind. It was simple stencil writing, just replication of words from the previous one.

A city that has officials who just copy and paste from the previous budget becomes the same old wine in a new bottle.

Some lines were simply replicated as they were presented previously.

A clear example is a line on page 2 of the proposed 2021 budget presented on Thursday 19, 2020 which is a replica of a second paragraph on page 3 of the 2022 proposed budget.

Both the 2021 budget and the 2022 budget were presented by finance and development chairperson Councillor Tichavona Mhetu.

“This theme is in line with the thrust of council in 2022 to ensure sustainability in the water sector, to manage solid waste effectively and to ensure that our roads are more trafficable,” reads the 2022 budget statement.

The only difference in this statement with the one in the 2021 budget is that the words to “ensure sustainability” replaced the words “restore service delivery”.

A whole lot of such copy and paste is evident in the 2022 budget, especially in the introduction and background section.

The city proposed rate hikes that will see an average high-density suburban householder paying $2 387 a month, up from the present $1 736, from January for basic services, while a low density family will pay an average of $7 630 up from the present $4 558.

Figures have been thrown around each passing year, but without implementation.

As Harare Resident Trust director, Mr Precious Shumba, put it across yesterday: “Council says the right things, but implementation is non-existent and several excuses are provided to justify the non-implementation of key proposals.”

What ratepayers demand is service delivery, presentation of figures without implementation is insanity.

That is simply doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.

The city needs tangible solutions to tackle the deteriorating service delivery, but from the presented budget there is no hope for a change in the way of doing business.

For instance, the council says in the 2022 budget that it will prioritise Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) issues, but there is no clear roadmap of how that will be achieved.

One of the most unjustified increases was that of hiking ambulance fees, especially considering that the country is still trying to contain the Covid-19 disease.

The cost of hiring an ambulance will rise to $1 980 up from $820. Even in essential health services, maternity fees have slightly risen with expecting mothers set to pay $2 475 up from $2 000.

Harare City Council is also pushing for a massive hike in rents for the houses it owns.

In Glaudina, houses will be rented for $22 538 up from $9 300, in Glen Norah the semi-detached houses will be rented for $15 799 up from $6 504.

In Dzivaresekwa (terraced full unit) tenants will pay $7 753 up from $3 200. One ponders on the decision to increase rentals sharply when the local authority has no clear database of the people who stay in those houses.

Corruption has been taking its toll with council officials subletting the premises, while pocketing the money which should go towards service delivery and maintenance of such facilities.

A recent investigation by our publication showed that poor management of city properties has seen ex-employees, who must vacate rented flats within three months of resignation or retirement, subletting the properties and pocketing between US$250 and US$400 monthly, some decades after leaving employment.

Some of the flats are now allegedly occupied by girlfriends of council top brass or ex-bosses, who are not even paying anything to council.

A breakdown of the increased rates and service charges show that high-density suburban residents will be charged $615 up from $575 the first five cubic metres of water, refuse collection $778 from $565, minimum property tax $594 from $345 and sewer connections $400 from $250.

Those in the low density suburbs will be charged $820 for the first five cubic metres of water up from $765, sewer connections $540 up from $410, refuse $1 112 up from $803 and with a minimum property tax of $5 158 up from $2 580.

The business community will also see increased fees, with the collection of bins in commercial and industrial areas depending on the frequency per week, daily collection will be $2 224,74 up from $1 632, three times a week will be $2 691, 94 up from $1 782.

Justifying the proposed hiked rates, Clr Mhetu said the budget was drawn under the theme, ‘Building resilience: Towards Sustainable Service Delivery.’

“By building resilience for sustainable service delivery, we will be developing the launch pad for the transformation of Harare into a smart city by 2025,” he said.

According to the proposal, the capital budget will be $10,367 billion, while revenue collections will contribute $31, 506 billion.

Clr Mhetu said the theme seeks to address key service delivery issues as water, sanitation and hygiene, roads and health sectors and ensure that the city provides sustainable service delivery.

He said the budget also seeks to take care of gender issues, as it clearly states programmes, which address aspects like provision of maternity services to all women within the environs of the City of Harare.

“The Budget seeks to ensure gender responsive service delivery, hence the focus is predominantly water, sanitation and hygiene,” he said.

“This is so because we are alive to the fact that women and girls are the most affected by poor service delivery in these sectors.”

Clr Mhetu said the council has put in place five pillars including revenue maximisation, operational and technical efficiency, employee motivation and productivity, and good governance.

He said this will be coupled with making hard and unpopular decisions in closing all revenue leaks and eradicating corruption.

What ratepayers need is provision of at least basic services like water and refuse collection, not a mere talk show as has been witnessed in the previous years where the council failed to implement the budget provisions.

It will be a mammoth task for the city to achieve a world class status if those entitled to lead it are never serious about their roles.