By Ben Manyenyeni-(Former Hre Mayor)
Finally, the dream dies, 2025 is here today.
I shed no tears.
I disowned this misplaced mantra some years ago when I was still leading this Council.
As usual there was a sustained attempt to carry the empty noises on….. to as late as last night.
There’ve been 4(and ½) Mayors since I left Trauma Centre (aka Town House Harare) in 2018.
None of them should really be indivdually blamed for this collapsed dream.
My own predecessor, Mayor Much Masunda, as far back as 2008 described HCC as moribund – a fatally fitting description.
At the very same time this dream was being crafted the City lost an effective and direct US$1bn dollars
- in March 2013 when the Local Government Minister awarded hefty salaries to ALL levels of HCC workers
- in July 2013 in an electioneering shenanigan the same Local Gvt Minister wrote off $300m rates payeble.
This was close to 30 months’ revenues – with zero compensation from the Government.
Mathematically, my 2013 council had 50% of its possible success chopped off weeks before we set foot at Town House…..a miracle we lasted.
HCC has not yet recovered from both the direct and indirect pains of those ministerial signatures.
My own estimate is that the INDIRECT costs of just those two directives add another $2bn minimum haemorrhage to Harare City Council survival.
Until there is convergence of power with willpower in what must be done, there is no room for positive dreams for the City.
Nightmares will be the order of the broad day.
Until the key ingredients of running even a NORMAL city are restored, forget about a WORLD CLASS city.
Reasons for Failure
The following key factors are fundamental to revival of Harare City :
- People.
Elected and Executive leadership?
Residents and ratepayers?
Can you match any of these humans to their counterparts in the countries and cities we dream to be?
NONE of these categories of people would make it in Cape Town, Kigali, Munich etc etc.
I broadly mean NONE.
No saints – “hapana mutsvene”.
- Laws.
Power and authority to drive Council must be clearly vested in those answerable for performance.
Chapter 14 of the new Constitution of Zimbabwe re: Devolution has been trampled upon for 11 years.
- Government.
(I pray the Acting President of the Republic, the Hon. Col. K.C.D. Mohadi reads this).
A world-class government whose performance and leadership we can all be proud of is what it takes to drive municipalities.
The Government has reflected more as a disabler, politically, than an enabler to performance
Our Government, unlike in other countries, does NOT provide municipal funding to local authorities.
Some cities get as much as 70% municipal budgetary support from their Governments.
Finances
- Economy.
Cities are not islands but parts of the mainland.
It is impossible to aspire for success to a municipality in a failed economy.
Just the currencies applicable in Zimbabwe on their own have caused havoc to the capital city.
Harare City Council, on its own, is a Mini-Government, as big as 10 to 15 small government ministries combined.
- Financial Management.
This City has been compliant/up to date with external audits only once in over 25 years in 2017.
The City is not known for its wisdom in allocating the limited resources but for its rogue procurement, salaries, over-employment, sports, workshops and travel etc are among the culprit line items.
The performances of the City’s huge land bank, its properties and business ventures continue to be a joke.
The City’s revenue assurance model is comical currently.
- Infrastructure.
Municipal infrastructure, like most public utility works the world over, is multi-generational, cross-generational, inter-generational – which is why the Ian-Smith-was-Better debate was raging last week.
A Loss A Long Time Coming
I use the vernacular saying “Chisi Hachiyeri Musi wacharimwa” to reflect the deferred impacts of decisions made (or not made) by decision-makers.
We are battling with a 60-year old water treatment and supply system.
Mayor Morton Jaffray is not around to be praised or blamed.
You all face the serving Mayor for today’s answers to yesterday’s plans and yesterday’s projects.
We can blame the current leadership for monthly water treatment chemicals shortages etc but not for infrastructure needs, which are a good three decades behind.
Large scale infrastructure globally is not rates-funded but rather done in State-assisted, multi-institutional frameworks.
Zimbabweans expect parking fees to build dams!
- Goodwill and Branding
Municipalities draw a lot of support from the goodwill they carry.
HCC has a poor record, world record loading.
Among other sore red flags, you can not imagine any capital city whose Mayors and Town Clerks have been arrested in office more than the Zimbabwe capital in the last 20 years.
In our media age how many negative stories pop up when anything about Harare City Council is seached on the Web, how many good ones?
Let the dead dream be buried……. I shed no tears.
