Harare City mayor, Bernard Manyenyeni
THE clogged drainage systems in the cities, particularly Harare, which have seen streets become impassable during rain spells have shone the spotlight on the ineffectual management of local authorities, which has for years betrayed a lack of strategic planning and poor resource allocation, among an array of other indicators of mismanagement. Daunting bureaucracy has also stunted progress in delivering for citizens by the city fathers.
While year in year out, drainage challenges have manifested in Harare, not so much in the other cities, management of the city has failed to tackle the perennial problem. Instead, what citizens see as they grapple with the flooding streets in town and high densities suburbs, are knee-jerk reactions which come a little too late and a dollar too short.
Late November and most of December citizens struggled to navigate their way around the city as the level of the water on the ground rose to knee-level of the average person during the incessant rains. Traffic slowed down as people and vehicles were precariously exposed to the elements. In some high density suburbs, furniture and clothes were soaked in the rains, as clogged drainage systems spit out the water into low lying homes.
While the mayor of Harare mayor, Bernard Manyenyeni and his team of councillors have presented themselves as willing to roll their sleeves and get to the bottom of the city’s problems as seen by the tours they took around the city during the New Year’s holiday, they have, by and large, failed to rally city management along.
“I have not had any confirmations from the city management yet (on whether they are joining us on the tours),” Manyenyeni said ahead of the tour to the affected suburbs. However, director of the Harare Residents Trust, Precious Shumba said these efforts were too little and too late. “The current mayor has a positive attitude in terms of engaging stakeholders, but he acts as if this is an emergency. He may be raring to go, but his timing is poor. More could have been done ahead of time.” Shumba said.
According to Shumba, council is bedevilled by lack of strategic planning, poor resource allocation as well as too much bureaucracy. “They lack strategic planning, sound resource allocation and there is too much bureaucracy. They always act as if they are in an emergency and yet if they planned well in advance, it would help the situation,” Shumba said.
“Long before the rains started we raised the issue of the collapsed drainage system, but nothing was done.” Council could have put a work plan in place, said Shumba “They also spend more of their resources on salaries when they should devote it to the infrastructure and service delivery,” he said.
Another factor which bogs city management down is partisanship. Of the 46 councillors in Harare, 38 are from the opposition, Movement for Democratic Change, while eight are from the ruling ZANU-PF. And with the city management itself led by ZANU-PF, battles of supremacy and the blame game have been rife much to the detriment of service delivery. Reference to the council based on party is rife.
Last year the Affirmative Action Group (AAG) — a pro-indigenisation pressure-group composed mainly of ZANU-PF supporters, issued out a statement calling the MDC-T leadership of the council “clueless”.
“The MDC-T has been in power for 15 years in all urban centres and the results of their recklessness and lack of leadership quality is demonstrated by a myriad of misguided decisions that have been taken to advance the interests of the party over the needs of the residents,” said Davison Gomo, chief executive officer of the AAG.
“Manyenyeni and his people can keep their party, but certainly not our city,” Gomo added.
The politicisation of city management has raised suspicions that the ZANU-PF dominated staff at the city council have sabotaged the MDC-led councils by creating an environment not conducive for council to be effective in their work. As a non-executive mayor, Manyenyeni is limited in his powers over the city’s affairs and rallying the officers along has been his major challenge.
The city has also been criticised for employing measures which, instead of helping matters, actually worsen the situation. The stop gap measure of dealing with potholes, for example, has seen council workers filling potholes with gravel and sand which have, with time flowed into the drains “These block the pathway for water,” Shumba said.
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