By Correspondent
Two months into the Harare Commission of Inquiry, Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe already has a verdict about the Harare Council.
The Minister was last week quoted in the media describing Harare as technically dead.
“What I can mention is that corruption is still taking place at the Harare City Council.
“Complaints continue to come from residents over the council’s failure to deliver services, like waste and sewer management, providing clean water and road maintenance.
“Reports that we are receiving daily speak volumes about how the local authority is being run.
“I can say that, for all technical purposes, the City of Harare is non-existent,” he said.
Garwe’s utterances betray the idea behind the Judge Maphios Cheda process.
A Careful Political Plan
It was never an innocent people-driven agenda to root out corruption at Council.
Instead, the rot at Harare merely provided a justification for an assassination scheme to undercut the democratically elected clique.
While some Councillors have been cited in some shady deals the main issue remains the management.
At one point Harare only had one substantive Director out of seven.
The other six were all acting as the substantive Directors had all criminal cases.
This included the Town Clerk.
However, the current enterprise disguised as a Clean-Up operation will drag away the Councillors first.
Impotent Commissions
The Maphios Cheda Commission is expected to recommend the installation of a Harare Commission.
That Commission, just like both the Mahachi and Makwavarara Commissions before, will scupper elected Councillors.
The players at the core of the rot and corruption, management level Directors and Managers, will remain.
Essentially, it means that Harare will by and large remain the same as the core substance of the problem will remain.
It may go into hibernation, as it it adapts to new leadership but the essential fact is that it will still be there.
As we have pointed out here before, Commissions have never worked magic before.
What will be the difference now?
