By Fanuel James
Harare’s 2027 budget wants to be read as reform towards improved services but the numbers suggest it is a rerun of the old.
On paper, it is a US$800 million budget.
However, on the ground, for the nine months to September 2026, Council managed to spend only ZiG7.297 billion of which 52% went to salaries.
Not water treatment chemicals or pipe replacement but salaries.
Wrong Model
That is not an aberration but a model.
The 2026 budget allowed 50% for employment costs and the 2027 proposal keeps it above half.
A city that spends more to sustain itself than to serve its residents has inverted its mandate.
The capital story is worse.
Council budgeted ZiG4.932 billion for capital in 2026 and executed ZiG1.517 billion, a mere 30.75%.
Of that, ZiG1.3 billion did not come from Council at all but from Public-Private Partnerships.
Council’s own contribution to its own capital program was negligible.
You cannot fix a water crisis, a road crisis, and a waste crisis on someone else’s balance sheet.
This is where the budget loses redemption because at the same time, Council is sitting on a fortune it cannot collect.
Debtors
What is owed to Council jumped 41% in nine months to ZiG11.898 billion.
That is almost double the entire annual spend.
Domestic debtors: ZiG8.437bn, commercial: ZiG2.474bn, industry: ZiG1.49bn.
Other local authorities: ZiG1.33bn, Central Government: ZiG532m.
Meanwhile, what Council owes is ZiG2.511 billion, concentrated in one place that tells you everything.
ZiG1.454 billion, or 58.58%, is owed to ZESA for pumping water.
This means Harare cannot afford to pump the water it cannot afford to treat for residents who cannot afford to pay.
So is there redemption?
Only if you read the budget as a warning, not a plan.
Actual Redemption
Redemption would mean three hard decisions that this budget still avoids.
Cap the wage bill at 30%, as Treasury has demanded for years.
No serious municipality spends 52% on itself.
Ring-fence collections. Both domestic and commercial debtors owe over ZiG10bn.
Without prepaid water, aggressive collection, and cutting off Government departments, the US$800m remains fictional.
Spend capital from own revenue.
30% implementation funded by PPPs is not implementation but outsourcing.
Harare does not need a bigger budget but it needs a budget that spends less on keeping the council employed and more on keeping the taps running.
Until then, US$800m is not a budget.
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