adminnot mentioned during the launch that was graced by Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo.
City officials deliberately failed to talk about the attributes of a world class city which include a premium mass transit system, a young urbanised population, a regional transport hub, enough vehicle parking space, a highly suburbanised population, a highly ranked local research university, a hot city economy and hot night life among others.
Water availability, efficient refuse collection, good roads, schools, hospitals and clinics were not part and parcel of the address. Instead emphasis was put on the need to have an efficient workforce to drive the vision and team work.
Officials failed to talk about how they aim to revamp the city’s traffic lights, public lighting, provision of more houses and accurate billing system.
Notably absent from the vision launch were key stakeholders like residents’ boards, line Government Ministries and State departments that help to drive the vision. For example, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Ministry of Finance, National Housing and Social Amenities among others were not present.
All these are key stakeholders in achieving the 2025 World Class City Vision as their co-operation and participation is critical.
Town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi said some workers will be seconded to developed cities to learn best practices.
His team, he said, will remain committed to the standards set in the vision.
“This solidifies our belief in the criticality of the human capital. The nature of our worker is instrumental in shaping the destiny of the City of Harare,” he said.
He said the vision will be achieved in phases with the first phase 2012 to 2013 dedicated to creating a shared vision and putting in place a flat and responsive organisation to drive the vision.
Phase two 2014 to 2015 will be dedicated to creating an integrated communication system to communicate with all stakeholders and to capacitate the organisation to achieve service delivery.
Under phase three which runs between 2016 and 2019 “is the time to delight customers with high quality service delivery”.
Dr Mahachi said this phase will be dedicated to achieve a sustainable, livable and environmentally friendly city.
The final phase 2020 to 2025 will be the dawn when Harare “becomes a World Class City”.
Minister Chombo bemoaned the poor service delivery by local authorities and their failure to address residents’ expectations. He expressed optimism the city’s vision will be achieved but emphasised on the need to remain focused.
“Your success is our success as a Ministry and country,” he said.
Minister Chombo said the city’s debtors should pay their bills to enable council to drive its vision without financial hindrance.
He said it was important that each worker justified their presence in council by working hard. Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda paid tribute to the city workers and emphasised their importance in achieving the vision. He said service delivery issues should be depoliticised. The launch was attended by workers from various
departments, workers unions, senior local government and bank officials.
Online Reporter