Online Reporter
The Harare City Council’s latest episode of incompetence arrived in literally the foulest way possible — pun very much intended.
BY now, we all should have heard the blood-curdling horror from Budiriro 3 when 19-year-old Saul Karakadzai, who was walking a narrow path with a friend, slipped and fell into a sewer pit that was three metres deep, seven metres long and two metres wide.
Apparently, the pit had been left open, unmarked and unsecured for months.
Sadly, Saul was fatally swallowed by the quicksandish sludge.
And as if that was not nightmare enough, a rescue diver and swimming instructor, Victor Kazembe, pulled out two more bodies.
Two more souls who slipped into that same stinking grave, unseen, unheard and uncounted until now.
It stinks to high heaven.
We are, of course, heartbroken for young Saul.
One moment joking, the next swallowed by filth.
Drowning in sewage is not a dignified end.
It is horrific. It is unconscionable.
And, most critically, it was 100 percent preventable.
Culture of incompetence
But here is the truth: The City of Harare does not finish projects; they simply abandon them and wait for a tragedy or lawsuit to remind them to do their job.
In 2014, they were forced to fix two roads in Avondale — Ridge Road and Mount Road — after a fed-up businessman, Maxwell Murombo Manatsa, dragged them to the High Court.
Manatsa was incensed that the two roads were so potholed that they were wrecking his fleet.
After the lawsuit, they scrambled to repair the offensive roads. So, it seems they only move when the judge’s gavel is hovering over them.
And then there is the legendary case of 2007.
A top banker, Pindie Nyandoro, hits a pothole on Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa Road (formerly Enterprise Road) in her Mercedes-Benz, damaging the steering rack and breaking a tie rod.
She goes to court and the council is ordered to pay $1,6 million (Zimbabwe dollars).
A banker sues, the council pays.
A businessman sues, the council repairs.
So, after the latest tragedy, where lives were lost, what is next?
Mai Juju believes we need to sue the city fathers.
Sue them for negligence.
Sue them for criminal incompetence.
We need to take them to the cleaners over the three preventable deaths.
Sadly, we also know how this ends.
A press statement. A moment of silence. A promise to investigate and review safety standards.
Then next month, somewhere else, another open pit, another tragedy. The cycle is sickening.
However, we can only say to Central Government: Please, save us from the tyranny of gremlins masquerading as councillors.
Maybe — just maybe — it is time to bring in a commission to run Harare.
A real one. With engineers.
With people who understand that “public works” means finishing them, not abandoning them like a bad marriage.
Misfeasance that leads to loss of life is incompetence writ large.
Ndikoko!
