The Sunday Mail
Oliver Chidawu
One of the things that is needed in our local authorities is discipline in terms of spending.
Local authorities, just as any business, should realise that they should learn to eat what they kill.
These are international benchmarks within every business, which should be followed if a business wants to be successful.
No business wakes up one day and decides to pay huge salaries when there has been no production.
Even in central Government, this is being emphasised and these are part of efforts to revive the economy.
Government has been emphasising on cuts in spending, especially on things that we have not produced.
It is not going to be easy, but we have no option, we have to do it.
This is our country, we have no-one to do it for us. It is like football, we can all go to the stadium and cheer, but there must be players and a team. So we need to have the skills and the zeal to win.
In addition, this also leads to the attraction of the requisite skills to turn around the city.
Zimbabweans in general are known for hard work, but we just need redirect that work to where it is needed. I think that will be our emphasis in terms of our strategic planning.
There is also need to emphasise on accountability. If we can hold each other accountable, we will be successful. Where there is accountability, there is no corruption.
There is rampant corruption in councils because of lack of checks and balances.
Corruption is a result of people not accounting.
If all this is implemented effectively, Harare can return to its original state of being the Sunshine City.
I have also received a briefing from President Mnangagwa, which entails that we support his vision of turning the country into an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
This will include making Harare habitable.
This is very achievable.
Devolution
Harare is the luckiest province because it is the only province that is represented by all and sundry.
All groups of people are represented in Harare. This makes it easier to market the city. It also makes it easier to develop the city.
This also makes it easier to devolve. Everything is in Harare; thus, what we have to do is to devolve out of Harare.
However, we can leverage on this and upgrade our tourism facilities so that all those provinces come to spend their money in Harare.
There are cities in the world that are known for attracting big spenders and this is what Harare can become.
This can be done through real estate. Harare should be able to market itself through its infrastructure and buildings.
Thus we do not necessarily need to have resources.
We want to make Harare the place to come and spend your money.
We are also going to focus on Information Technology Centre. We want Harare to be a technology centre or hub.
We are also going to bring opportunities even to the young people. Everyone must be involved and this will create jobs for our youths.
Early experiences as a mayor
In 1984, I was elected to be mayor of Harare, and I was 28. It was different back then.
There was order and ethics not only in the streets but in the boardrooms as well. There was good governance, there were elderly people — both white and black — but there was order.
If you had an interest, you would declare the interest and leave the room. It is rarely done today. This has destroyed values. We need those values to be reinstated and they can be reinstated by the leadership. It does not happen just because you want to, but because you live them.
Harare is now becoming clean because the leaders said let us clean it.
President (Mnangagwa) practiced that and it is becoming a reality.
In those days, conscience drove the business of the day. During our days, it was ethics and good governance.
Nowadays councillors can resolve amongst each other to parcel out land because the morals and ethics were thrown away.
Council deterioration began in the 1990s and up to now it has not recovered.
Major and Priority projects
At the moment, we have not yet lined up a list of major projects that we will be undertaking, but certainly water project is one of them.
Water and sanitation crisis is a challenge not only in Harare, but at national level.
When I was mayor, I remember there were a number of water projects that were lined up to help with the water situation.
These water projects should have been commissioned by now.
Morton Jaffray was commissioned when I was still mayor and a tender was given to a Chinese company.
There was also Firle sewage, which was a very sophisticated sewage plant. At that time, when the sewage had been processed, it was able to discharge drinkable water. However, today it discharges back raw sewage because no-one is maintaining it.
It is an issue of management and leadership, which we must provide and we should be able to do that. There is also need to support the City of Harare and ensure that Kunzvi Dam is implemented so that the water situation in Harare is improved.
There is also need to look into Muda Dam in Chitungwiza, which will also go a long way in providing water to Greater Harare.
There is also need for cleanliness and responsibility among the local authorities.
For 20 years, Chitungwiza has been disposing raw sewage into rivers and they expect to get clean water from these sources.
What is called hyacinth is actually raw sewage.
Local authorities are being reckless and irresponsible. That is what we want to conscientise everyone. These are things we want to attend to as soon as possible. It is a matter of just stopping, making sure local authorities do not discharge raw sewage into the water.
There is also the issue of illegal settlements; this is another issue that needs urgent attention. There is need for illegal settlements to be legalised and re-planned.
This is also a matter of urgency.
We will be able to get support from the Government and private players for this initiative.
Senator Oliver Chidawu was recently appointed as Minister of State for Harare Metropolitan province.
