The Sunday Mail
Professor Innocent Chirisa
Zimbabwe’s urban space is in a state of utmost decomposition.
The general physical fabric is appalling. We are talking of the state of buildings, roads; and water, sewer and waste works.imbabwe’s urban space is in a state of utmost decomposition.
In short, the supply side of infrastructure is in bad shape. When one stays in a situation for too long, one may fail to see it. But how sorry the state of infrastructure is.
There are many reasons why the situation has precipitated to this level.
Many people I interact with poke me (so do they to other members of my professional fraternity — planners), saying, “You planners are giving us a raw deal; justify your existence!”
As planners, we have known how to tell them that we are not to blame.
The problem is that the more you try to shift or avoid blame, the more the sticker sinks into your skin.
We always sigh and say, but it is not us.
Economists will not take the blame for a run-down economy and political scientists will not take the blame for violent elections or sociologists the haemorrhaging of families.
Cities in a mess; whose baby is it, really?
The finger is ready to point at us. Planners think their so-close brothers who should get a fair dose of blame are civil engineers.
We believe they know the cross-section of a road and its constituents better than us.
We believe they know the suitable structures for a place better; and we know they can suggest better and more innovative structures worth putting up in wetlands.
It is engineers’ genius that explains why the Dutch have been able to build enduring structures below sea level.
They’ve filled up seas with sand and material from deep down the sea to build, for example, a city called Almere in The Netherlands.
Engineers from that land have made their countrymen proud that they boast: “God created the Earth, but the Dutch created Holland!”
Planners, like architects, scintillate their brains to think and by revelation are creative in bringing out the “hidden treasure” in their minds.
We think and they make it possible!
We envision and they translate the vision into tangibles. It is our duty to dream and suggest. It is their duty to turn the suggestions into reality.
After all, the human species does not eat dreams; it thrives on dreams-turned-reality. Dreams-turned-reality is what humanity defines as development. Dreams foiled is development failed or development frustrated.
From another angle, who messes space?
It is an individual, a member of a family, a household, a member of a community, a community, a member of society and a society whose development rights have been blocked.
Rebels are born out of frustration or out of mischief.
One gets to college or university and comes out with a certificate, diploma or degree. They knock on the employer’s door. They are ready to sell their labour and translate “the paper” into money. The employer tells them there is no space for them.
They bring the response home.
Such news is not accepted with the ease of saying it. Remember, this is the generation of parents schooled to think that “the paper” easily translates to a job and jobs translate to money.
The job-seeker finds himself/herself between a rock and a hard place.
The next day, they hear the then President of the Republic saying, “We have a programme for graduates. Why graduate to be employed? We want entrepreneurs as other graduates are doing in other countries!”
The graduate next door is knocking at the then Ministry of Youth, Empowerment and Indigenisation.
In fact, he/she is not the only one.
He/she is coming today but there are others who have been queuing in the last seven days. No. Others have been in the queue for the last two months; others the last 14 months and others, yet, the last seven years.
Now, we are not sure whether the blame rests with sufficiency of monetary resources or officers who are screwing their bureaucratic spanners tight.
Some say officers are asking for money to oil the system for it to release the money.
After trying hard to get capital, the graduate decides to get into the street to sell something, begging with sweets, maputi, cigarettes and fruits.
Trading in the streets is part of the informal economy.
There are advantages in getting into this sector: cheap capital and ease of entry and exit. But in the streets, it is not only the graduate.
There are also John, Peter and James who decided to come to the city; having had failed seasons because of the drought that ravaged Musana communal lands.
There are also Susan and Gertrude whose husbands left them unceremoniously and now these two have taken over the breadwinner responsibilities.
Gogo Musadaro is also with this horde of individuals seeking to eke a living. Sekuru Musadaro passed away two decades ago and his estate had issues that made it difficult for gogo to leave the city.
The urban space is a place considered holding all sorts of opportunities. It is considered to have jobs, enterprise and better amenities; you name it.
Such consideration by the opportunity-seeker may prove otherwise. Caged in that environment, one then has to improvise (kukiya-kiya).
The urban space is a jungle; the fittest will survive. When opportunity-seekers improvise and abuse the planned space, they are, no doubt, at loggerheads with municipal authorities.
Planners have the responsibility of controlling development in the city or town.
They are usually unpopular because of this duty and responsibility of ensuring order. The major questions we usually get are: What order? Whose order? Why now?
Indeed, it sounds ridiculous to be forcing someone off a site or place for the sake of order when the same person is presenting to you their cause; that they are in this place because they left children at home crying for bread.
To them, the city is that place “inviting” everyone to come and have life.
The city is to them — and to us also — everyone’s mother calling all her children to come, feed and stay.
Unfortunately, this big mother needs constant rejuvenation. Because her children are numerous and gregarious, she is now like a prisoner in stocks.
She is begging for help.
She wants one of her children to think twice better and be innovative for her to be rejuvenated constantly.
She also wants the other child, engineering, to have her undergo the surgical operation prescribed by other experts — the architect, economist, sociologist, psychologist, social worker, historian, environmentalist. . .
What she needs is a systems approach. With this approach, Mother City is every child’s responsibility.
Zimbabwe’s cities and towns need everyone’s attention.
◆ Professor Innocent Chirisa is Chair of the University of Zimbabwe’s Department of Rural and Urban Planning. He wrote this article for The Sunday Mail.
