The Combined Harare Residents Association condemns machinations to replace a democratically elected council by an appointed commission under the pretext of uprooting corruption in the Harare City Council.

CHRA condemns all forms of corruption and graft and welcome efforts by the state to fight corruption in our local authorities but that does not warrant imposing a commission as this is a serious threat to representative democracy, a move that is aimed to throw citizens to the periphery of local governance.

Any attempt to the abuse of Section 80 (1)(a) and (b) of the Urban Councils Ac 29:15 by the Minister of Local Government through imposing a Commission to run the City of Harare is misplaced and has no place in any democratic society.

Local government is the closest government to the people, the idea and thinking of replacing an elected council that is accountable to the people by an appointed commission has serious implications on accountability

Historically, appointed Commissions have not improved service delivery but have been catalysts of stripping the City of Harare’s assets, fuelling grand corruption and led to total collapse of service delivery to the extent of losing lives.

CHRA has a well-documented narrative of the collateral damage that is highlighted in a snapshot below;

·         Chanakira Commission 1999-2001; Clandestinely recruited 1235 employees and promoted people who were connected to it.

·         Makwavarara Commission 2004-2006; Facilitated the ZINWA takeover of Harare Municipal Water Supply that saw total collapse of water supplies and sewer reticulation, thousands of people died of cholera during her era; recommended the devastating Operation Murambasvina and Ms Makwavarara used ratepayers’ money for her luxuries at the expense of service delivery and illegally bought a council house in Borrowdale for a paltry $780 million instead of $5,5 billion (Zimbabwe Dollars).

·         Michael Mahachi Commission 2006-2007; Council lost vast tracts of land in a US $90 million botched Airport Road deal with Augur Investments and Sewer reticulation plants collapsed.

A closer look to persons who were appointed to be Commissioners in the past clearly shows that most of them were losing candidates in elections or the ruling party apologists and the level of corruption during the periods of commissions was astonishing.

The renewed interest to take over town house comes at a time when the City has signed US$868 water deals.

CHRA warns of a serious humanitarian catastrophe in the event that a Commission takes over the City of Harare, especially at a time the country is under siege from the ravaging and notorious COVID 19 pandemic.