RELATIONS between central government and the City of Harare seem to have thawed under the current mayor, Councillor Jacob Mafume of ward 19.
RUVIMBO MUCHENJE
During the official opening of the Julius Nyerere Way stretch from Jason Moyo Avenue to Sam Nujoma Street, that was under construction, the mayor was singing praises of the work done by the ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development ahead of the Southern African Development Community summit set for August 2024. It is rare for the opposition to praise central government.
He welcomed the development, saying that bad infrastructure affects all users despite political differences.
“Like what the minister said, a road does not know political affiliation, it does not ask for your card. A pothole is non-discriminatory, it damages the car of the poor and the rich alike, so we are together here,” he said.
The government has embarked on an Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme to give roads that lead to the New Parliament Building at Mt Hampden a facelift, a development that has been criticised as a cosmetic patch-up of Zimbabwe’s dilapidated roads.
But Mafume said that the infrastructure would benefit all the residents of Harare.
“Infrastructure is for us all. We cannot have a dispute over infrastructure, a good road is a good road, period. We as the people of Harare we have always been asking the ministry to invest more of the resources that it is getting into Harare,” said Mafume.
During the whole time, Transport minister Mhona would invite Mafume to be with him.
They cut the ribbon to signify the opening of the stretch together.
“Well done, well done. You put bucket seats at Rufaro Stadium. Please come to the middle, you are the owners of the city,” said Mhona while jointly holding the ribbon with Mafume before cutting it.
They even interrupted the speech of the Transport secretary by welcoming him to the programme because he was late.
There had been a longstanding fight between local authorities and the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) over the state of roads in Harare, with the city council saying the government through Zinara is grabbing money which rightfully belongs to local councils.
But the mayor has warmed up to the government, commending the good work over the completion of the 1.4 kilometre stretch.
“I am happy that the honourable minister has heeded that call and there is huge roadworks that are happening in Harare. That is what the motorists have been asking for and require,” he said.
“You know we are the engine, we are the hub. Most money is made in Harare and we drive the nation, so we owe it to the residents of Harare to improve the ambiance and the efficiency at which they can get to work. We would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused during the time when the road was being repaired,” said Mafume.
He explained on behalf of the government why the road took two months to complete.
“We must remember and acknowledge that this road is a complex road because there is a river underneath, there are a lot of cables underneath and a lot of services that come with it so it moves slower and delays people so the wait was worth it, at least for this section. We hope and we are in discussions with the ministry to repair our asphalt plant and to repair our quarry so that we can also go to the roads in the wards, in the districts that people came from, so that we have a sustainable action plan towards the rehabilitation of the roads,” said Mafume.
Meanwhile, to complement the efforts of central government, Mafume promised to enforce by-laws on improving the ambiance of Harare so that they meet the standards set by the road.
“So we as the City of Harare are happy to complement the ministry in any way possible. We are keen to have the roads in Harare improve and we are also keen to have the ambiance around Harare improve, that is the pavements themselves, the faces of the buildings. So, going forward, we will be enforcing strictly the by-laws, that is the hygiene by-laws, to make sure that our buildings are modernised, our pavements are modernised our street lights are modernised so that people can enjoy living in a smart Harare and we can join the other countries that are enjoying new technologies,” said Mafume.
“We also deal with the structural deficiencies of our buildings, we had an unfortunate incident where one of the buildings collapsed on innocent bystanders, we want to avoid that happening in the future. We will be making our inspectors move building by building, elevator by elevator to make sure that all those aspects are modernised,” he added.
With the sprouting of “shopping malls” in Harare, Mafume took the opportunity to call out all mall owners and discouraged the obsession with having a mall at every corner in the central business district.
“We will discourage people to call them malls after they have simply subdivided a small little shop and announced that it is a shopping mall. It is not a shopping mall, it is just a subdivided building, so we will encourage people to modernise and to comply with the regulation, but today is a happy day. We have a road that has been repaired and that road is in Harare, it is a major artery in Harare and everyone is happy,” said Mafume.
To confirm the warming up of relations, Mafume thanked the presidium for reaching out to him on matters of developing Harare.
“I want to thank the minister and the relationships that we are developing with central government right from the top, the President himself, the Vice-Presidents, both of whom I have had the pleasure to meet over the infrastructure in Harare. VP Chiwenga and today I had a meeting with VP Mohadi over the issue of sports infrastructure and we spent the whole morning at Rufaro Stadium and I believe that is the way forward. Governance is not a competition but it is complementary,” Mafume ended his speech.
