Harare collapsing: Residents Trust

HARARE City Council has since May 2008 been run by elected councillors after being run through a Government-appointed commission for years. Ratepayers pinned their hopes on the new administration for improved service delivery, premised on the thinking that the elected councillors would express and deliver the people’s wishes, but about two years down the line, the people have discovered that the Commission was better. Allegations of entrenched corruption, flouting of tender procedures, self-enrichment and lack of intellectual capacity have become the core of the ratepayers’ complaints against council. Features Editor Isdore Guvamombe (IG) talks to Harare Residents Trust founder and co-ordinator Precious Shumba (PS) about this and other issues.
IG: Of late, your organisation has been visible in demanding service delivery and checkmating the Harare City Council. What are the real issues?
PS: In short, council has failed the people of Harare and senior managers and their councillors have been enriching themselves.
Rating their performance out of 10 in terms of service delivery, we have rated the council at five. They went into office premised on their promise to improve water and sewer reticulation, filling up potholes and refuse collection and look at what they have done.
These issues have, since the inauguration of this administration in May 2008, remained a distant mirage for the people of Harare. Things are even getting worse.
IG: What really is the problem with the leadership?
PS: At Harare City Council there is no deliberate policy to deliver. All they are doing is enriching themselves through hefty salaries and allowances.
Coming from an era in which the council was run by a Government-appointed commission, the people were misled that things would be fine but they are now very disappointed.
You see, there was that argument that the Commission was not right and not people-centred, but it has turned out that there is no accountability, there is no commitment to deliver water to the people, to collect refuse and to fill up the pot holes.
These people are not competent and accountable.
IG: How did you arrive at that conclusion?
PS: As representatives of the residents of Harare, we have analysed the performance of each councillor in Harare.
We looked at service delivery, we looked at visibility in residential areas, the central business district and every area under Harare.
We have looked at their grasp of issues as transferred from the residents and we are quite disturbed.
This council is dealing with perceived opinions and not residents’ expressed opinion.
When you attend their meetings-it’s all about political opinion, political statements, disguised as public sentiments – skirting real issues.
Water, water, water! Rubbish collection, roads, rates – these are the real issues at hand but all you get is this shallow mentality and nothing to deal with issues.
These guys have failed and are using a desktop approach.
IG: What then should be done?
PS: Harare is collapsing. Harare’s service delivery is collapsing.
How long is central Government going to watch while the council is being destroyed?
Ask the people of Mabvuku, Tafara, Greendale, Borrowdale, Highlands, Mt Pleasant and so forth, when they last had water! Msasa Park?
Water is a right, but is not a priority at council.
So you ask yourself, what is the council doing? It is a misnomer that everyone in the low density suburbs has the capacity to drill a borehole.
People need piped water. It is their right. This council does not have even the capacity to bill the people and they deliberately cook up the figures to mislead people and create a good atmosphere for fraud.
IG: You were recently on record, that the salaries there were too high versus service delivery.
PS: Yes, we have been fighting running battles with them. They are hiding everything but we have it on record that the directors pay each other hefty salaries of up to US$13 000 per month, including allowances.
The councillors themselves take home US$180 officially but they get hefty backyard allowances, including dubious workshop out-of-pocket allowances.
The mayor takes home a US$200 allowance officially, but you will be shocked to learn of his benefits. This kind of money could perform wonders in Budiriro or Mufakose, repairing roads.
IG: Are you suggesting that there is corruption?
PS: I am not suggesting, that could be an understatement! Corruption has permeated all levels of the Harare City Council.
Corruption has become so endemic there that extremely few people can come out of Town House smart.
Once you enter into that system, you cannot come out clean. How do you justify a municipal police officer driving the latest model of car home, when he works on patrol at Mbare Musika?
They have created new departments with departmental heads earning up to US$10 000. What for, we ask?
Do you think this council is justified in saying it does not know how many houses or properties are in Harare?
It is fertile breeding ground for corruption. They want it that way so that they play around with the money.
IG: But the councillors are the employers. Can’t they sniff the corruption?
PS: You must be joking.
There is a low calibre of councillors and this is why we are demanding that central Government should amend the Urban Councils Act and put prerequisite academic qualifications for councilors, and a minimum age limit of say 30 years.
These councilors are being manipulated. When they got into office, some of them had no shoes or clothes.
Now come to the full council meetings and see the cars parked there every last Thursday of the month at the full council meeting.
There is no longer parking space. Everyone has a car. Not only a car, but very good and expensive cars, yet there is no water. Their lifestyles no longer meet their pockets. They are living large and extravagantly.
IG: What is the general education level of the current councillors?
PS: Most of them have no basic O-Level like I said before. These are touts and vendors elected on sloganeering.
They don’t understand anything.
They are manipulated everyday of their lives.
They are abused by their own workers because the workers are more educated than their masters. This is why they are misled and Minister (Ignatius) Chombo ends up on their throats.
The intellectual capacity of most of the councillors leaves a lot to be desired. They are uneducated and poor, hence they can easily be manipulated.
IG: Talking of Local Government Minister Chombo. He is accused of interfering and being heavy-handed on Harare City councillors. What is your organisation’s position?
PS: The Minister knows the law and is sticking by the law, yet these guys know nothing.
If they were a bit educated they would certainly be able to interpret the Urban Councils Act.
This is the reason why the councillors were misled and ended up taking away houses from elderly residents. It’s silly, you see.
So the Minister is rightfully using the law. If the councillors stick to the law, the Minister will not interfere.
The Minister is right to a great extent.
The city council must consult the residents; it must deliver water to the residents; it must collect refuse; it must fill in pot holes and it must make residents comfortable. If anything the Minister must amend the Urban Councils Act for the better.
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