Harare is embarrassing: Mafume

Trust Freddy-Herald Correspondent

HARARE City’s top brass is under fire for allegedly prioritising luxury perks over basic infrastructure, amid a year-long struggle to procure tar for the city’s crumbling roads.

This comes at a time when the city was resorting to using soil to patch potholes as all funds earmarked for road rehabilitation were being garnished before use.

Speaking at a full council meeting recently, Councillor Denford Ngadziore called for action, accusing Harare city’s executive of prioritising luxury items over essential services.

“The challenge at the city council is that there is a cartel or a system that has to be broken. If we do not do that, we will not succeed. The management at one time bought themselves vehicles without any challenges. The challenge is, if we do not break that system, we will remain in one place,” said Ngadziore.

The city reportedly bought 12 high-end Toyota Fortuner GD6 vehicles for all directors plus a 13th luxurious Toyota Prado VX200 for the town clerk last year at a cost of around US$70 000 for the lowest priced vehicle.

City officials encountered no obstacles in spending an estimated half a million dollars on luxury vehicles.

Mayor Jacob Mafume also expressed his deep embarrassment over the city’s situation.

“Right now, I have messages from every Government office in town. When they say the road is bad, people are going to pour dust. Everywhere, dust is being poured. We have money from City Parking and ZINARA that is being garnished in our bank accounts without buying tar. Look at the embarrassment, the whole town is dusty. This is because we are patching potholes using dust,” Mafume said.

After years of accusing ZINARA of insufficient funding, the city has shifted its stance, acknowledging that the problem lies in the ineffective utilisation of the funds that are being disbursed.

ZINARA has publicly expressed that the City’s challenges stem from its own inefficiencies, often failing to utilise allocated funds effectively or provide adequate accounting for them.