The previous status of Harare should be restored

THAT the Harare City Council was experiencing challenges in delivering on its mandate to serve the capital has always been evident and apparent, but what many did not know was the extent and depth of these challenges.

Alarm bells began ringing when the Government rejected its 2024 budget proposal in March, citing a litany of possible misgovernance, malfeasance and misfeasance.

To put this into perspective, Harare was one of the two local authorities, including Hwange, whose budget proposals were rejected.

In all, there are 92 local authorities.

The explanation that was given by the then-Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Winston Chitando, was quite revealing.

“Harare City Council does not have a functional computer-based organisational system (enterprise resource planning — ERP) and this has contributed greatly to low revenue collection.

“The Parliament of Zimbabwe and Auditor-General recommendations to reinstate the previous ERP have not been complied with,” he said.

“This has contributed to low revenue collection and consequently poor service delivery.

“There is no provision in the 2024 budget to address this situation.”

Apparently, council has failed to procure an ERP for the past five years.

It gets worse.

The local authority’s financial statements for 2017, 2018 and 2019 received a disclaimer of opinion by the external auditor, which essentially means “the external auditor did not obtain sufficient and appropriate evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion”.

The law, particularly Section 49 of the Public Finance Management Act, stipulates that all local authorities must be audited by May 31 annually, and council was accused of violating this provision.

How damning!

As if that was not enough, it was also revealed that the city was owed a huge debt extending to over three years, a development that is negatively affecting its cash flows.

Currently, the debt stands at about ZiG940 million.

There were also other several areas of concern such as the non-remittance of revenues to the council, unavailability of audited accounts, unclear commercial/profit-sharing structures and a lack of monitoring of the business interests by the council, as well as “serious over-staffing”.

But Harare residents do not need to be told all this — they witness and live with the council’s ineptitude every day.

Billing, which is invariably either estimated or inaccurate, is a serious challenge that makes some people reluctant to settle their debts.

Although the roads are worryingly potholed, it is the nonchalance of those who run the affairs of the local authority that is concerning.

Our roads are poorly lit, water has become a luxury, while rubbish dumps continue to proliferate in communities, including in the central business district.

Infrastructure such as community halls and stadia continue to deteriorate.

The Government has several times tried to assist by providing funds for water treatment chemicals and the repair of critical infrastructure, taking over neglected roads and sponsoring “Operation Chenesa” to clean up the city, but the sheer scale of the crisis has always made the interventions unsustainable.

It is precisely because of this that we welcome President Mnangagwa’s decision to set up a commission of inquiry, led by retired judge Justice Maphios Cheda, to look into the City of Harare’s accounting systems and financial affairs over the last seven years.

Over the years, we have learnt that non-delivery of critical services to communities can pose a direct threat to both health and life.

So, the Government is well within its rights to step in to guarantee the safety of residents.

In any case, the City of Harare seemed unenthusiastic, unable even, to work towards delivering the national vision of making Zimbabwe a prosperous, modern and highly industrialised country by 2030.

Yet local authorities are at the coalface of service delivery.

Their services directly impact industries that operate in the jurisdictions, as well as residents.

Instructively, in November last year, the President launched a blueprint — “A Call to Action, No Compromise to Service Delivery” — which was supposed to guide local authorities in drafting budgets that prioritised service delivery.

In essence, it was supposed to jolt the local authority into action.

We sincerely hope that this is the beginning of a new trajectory for Harare, which will ultimately restore the status of our capital.

Something had to give.