daniel chigunwe
Wallace Ruzvidzo
Herald Reporter
HARARE City Council is “rotten and is being run by corrupt officials”, hence Central Government will stop at nothing to restore order and sanity in the local authority, Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe has said.
Sewer bursts, water woes, uncollected garbage, poor street lighting, a dysfunctional billing system and corruption have been the order of the day in the opposition-run local authority.
Speaking at a “Ministers Meet the Media” platform organised by Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere in Harare on Monday, Minister Garwe had no kind words for Harare City Council.
“City of Harare is a problem (something) which we all know, that is why we have a Commission of Inquiry right now to interrogate and investigate and recommend to Central Government what course of action we have to take on City of Harare.
“What I can tell you is that City of Harare is rotten. It is corrupt, it is being run by corrupt people that must be brought to book,” he said.
Minister Garwe said Harare City Council’s misplaced priorities had resulted in Harare residents being shortchanged, a situation Government was moving in to resolve.
Recently, HCC had announced plans to demolish over 5 000 houses after having issued 48-hour eviction notices to those who built without approval on land reserved for public amenities.
Some of the properties targeted were in Mabelreign, Kuwadzana, Budiriro, Kuwadzana, Mabvuku and Glen View.
“Their wiring is wrong, that is why we called the Mayor (Councillor Jacob Mafume) and his team and told them if they try to demolish the houses they would see what would happen to them.
“We told them that we would lock them up. The local authority is a child to Central Government and if you see your child misbehaving, you reserve the right to put them in order,” he said.
Government’s argument was that some of these houses had been built with the blessing of council officials as they regularly assessed the construction progress.
Minister Garwe said the most sensible action to have been taken was for Harare City Council to bring to a stop the building of houses as soon as it started, not seek to demolish the houses when people have just moved in, worse still, at the onset of the rainy season.
“You want to demolish people’s houses when we are now in the rainy season, where do you want them to go?
“There are no 5 000 houses that are going to be demolished by City of Harare. We must do things properly…,” he said.
“In this instance, the same local authority was in certain instances inspecting these houses while they were being built, yes, they have built on an irregular location but you were the ones who were supervising them as they were building . . . we are saying, why did you (HCC) not stop it when it started, that is what they should have done.”
Minister Garwe said the populist approach that the Harare councillors had been trying to use to score cheap political points was uncouth and Government would not let it fly.
“Going to the media and saying we are now armed with a court order. We are human beings, we must be morally correct,” said the Minister.
Instead of being true city fathers, Harare councillors have sought to inflate prices for basics such as desktop computers.
Harare City Council also rejected a US$350 000 locally-developed enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from Harare Institute of Technology opting for a US$2,1 million system supplied by a foreign company.
The city could also have been prejudiced of US$816 000 by a water treatment chemicals supplier, Nanotech Water Solutions, that only acquitted US$252 000 from US$1,1 million availed from Devolution Funds to improve the city’s water purification system.
daglous masveta
