Online Reporter
Diana Nherera
The Combined Harare Residents Association has urged the City of Harare to roll out the Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) in order to boost service delivery.
The association’s director, Mr Reuben Akili, said the issue of an ERP has been on the table for more than 15 years.
“Year in year out, we are told that next week it will be functioning and when the day arrives, we are again told that next week it will be functioning,” he said.
“An engineer with the City of Harare last year promised us we would have a functional ERP but this did not happen. An ERP is critical in terms of record keeping and in ensuring financial records of the local authority are intact. It ensures that the billing system is more transparent and cannot be manipulated.
“I think the local authority has failed the residents through its failure to have a functional ERP or a billing system that will bring back confidence for residents and compel them to pay their rates and other payments because they will have the assurance that everything is done in a transparent manner.
“We envisage a situation where we need a local authority that has a proper and functional billing system and that is not happening.”
Mr Akili said that, as much as there has been much talk about prepaid water meters, again, if you look at water supply coverage, that has been the biggest challenge.
“Our current water production does not even meet a third of what is required; then we have a problem,” he said.
“Water is key in terms of ensuring issues of hygiene and household food security are realised. So we envisage a situation where water production should improve through the rehabilitation of Morton Jaffray Waterworks and also considering that we have been receiving good rains, Prince Edward Waterworks will be functional and add volumes to the current water supply. So we plead with the local authority to make water available to residents.”
He said there is also need to attend to roads in low- and high-density areas that are now littered with potholes.
He said at most intersections, traffic lights have not been working to the extent that airtime vendors and street kids end up controlling traffic.
“This is another area we feel the local authority needs to improve,” said Mr Akili.
He said the local authority should also stop parcelling out land on wetlands, exposing residents to serious flooding.
“We will continue to engage our legal services if it persists in this manner because it’s unacceptable,” he said.
