Harare masterplan delay irks Govt

Nokuthula Dube

The Harare City Council has been given up to November 20 to complete drafting the city’s masterplan or face severe consequences from Government for the “gross miscarriage of a critical statutory obligation”.

In a hard-hitting letter addressed to Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume, Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe expressed Government’s frustration over the council’s failure to meet the earlier deadline for submitting the masterplan, which was initially set for June.

Harare is now the only local authority among the 90 across the country that is yet to present a draft masterplan, despite more than four months having passed after the original deadline.

“It has come to my attention that the City of Harare submitted a placeholder masterplan document that did not quite meet the standard as per the dictates of the Regional Town and Country Planning Act,” wrote Minister Garwe.

“In subsequent meetings, Harare City promised to turn-in an acceptable masterplan document within the shortest time possible to allow for placement of the draft masterplan on public exhibit in October 2024.

“I am now informed that the process of crafting the masterplan is at snail’s pace and is unlikely to be concluded this fiscal year, given the statutory periods required for public display and attending to stakeholders’ comments and inputs.”

Minister Garwe warned that failure to meet the new deadline would leave the Government with no option but to take “stern action” against the entire council, including the managers involved in drafting the plan.

“If the Harare masterplan is not completed and placed on public display by November 20, 2024, I shall regard that as a gross miscarriage of a critical statutory obligation by the City Council, which is untenable and overly unacceptable.

“Further, failure to meet the deadline will leave my office with no other option but to take stern action against the whole council and all managers who are involved in the production of the masterplan; that is, the office of town clerk, chamber secretary, human capital, ICT, legal, procurement, spatial planning and finance, for their failure to have a whole of council approach to delivering the masterplan.”

Minister Garwe said, unlike other local authorities, Harare’s progress in drafting its masterplan has been exceptionally slow.

He said as the capital city, Harare was expected to set an example, but instead was lagging behind smaller councils, many of which have already submitted draft plans for public review.

“City of Harare, which administers the capital city, and is expected to lead by example, has lagged way behind all the other 90 local authorities nationwide that have managed to complete their draft masterplans fairly on time. The plans tendered by those compliant local authorities have already been reviewed by my ministry and are currently being deposited by respective local authorities for general public scrutiny in line with provisions of the Regional Town and Country Planning Act.

“I must point out to you that the blueprint by His Excellency is instructive on the need for compliance with its target outputs and set timelines to ensure that service delivery standards are met for the attainment of Vision 2030.

“The leniency shown, when council turned in a placeholder document, does not mean my ministry tolerates underperformance.

“In light of the foregoing, I now direct your council to expedite all outstanding plan preparation processes and to submit council’s comprehensive draft masterplan on or before November 20, 2024, without fail.”

In an interview, Cllr Mafume blamed unnamed council officials for delaying the drafting process.

He said the city required about US$2,9 million to complete the masterplan.

“We agree with the ministry that the issue of a masterplan is a priority,” he said.

“We do not understand the lethargy with which our staff are handling this issue.

“We have held special council meetings where we have said that the planning committee must meet on a weekly basis, which they are doing.”

He said work was being hamstrung by delays in paying service providers.

“There are some in our finance department whose designated role at times is to become roadblocks to progress,” he said.

“So, we are going to see how we can uproot these roadblocks to progress as they are delaying processes unnecessarily.

“We are, however, very confident that with the assistance of the ministry . . . we have also requested for money from the ministry and once that money and using our own resources, we should be able to meet the new deadline.

“We need about US$2,9 million to do the masterplan for Harare, which is a big city and, therefore, the masterplan is costly.”