By A Correspondent
As Harare struggles to meet its ambitious Vision 2025 goal of becoming a world-class city, the government has increasingly pointed fingers at the Harare City Council, blaming local leadership for the city’s deteriorating conditions. However, critics argue that the government is using the council’s shortcomings as a convenient scapegoat to deflect attention from its own failures in addressing the capital’s infrastructural crisis.
Harare’s vision of becoming a globally competitive, well-managed city by 2025 appears more elusive than ever, with mounting challenges that hinder progress. Despite the grand ambitions outlined in Vision 2025, a combination of long-standing administrative inefficiencies, poor governance, and infrastructural neglect has set back the city’s development. Critics argue that while the Harare City Council bears much of the responsibility, the government’s role in exacerbating the crisis cannot be overlooked.
A primary issue affecting the council’s ability to function effectively is the absence of key personnel, such as the Chamber Secretary and a substantive Director of Finance. These critical vacancies have left the council with a weakened administrative structure, unable to carry out its core functions. The lack of leadership has resulted in slow decision-making and poor oversight, which has, in turn, exacerbated the city’s ability to manage basic services like water, waste management, and sewage systems.
Equally problematic is Harare’s long-standing and deeply flawed billing system. The city’s residents frequently complain of inflated or incorrect utility bills for services such as water and electricity, leading to widespread dissatisfaction. The failure to address this issue not only undermines the council’s credibility but also impacts its ability to collect much-needed revenue, stalling efforts to improve the city’s crumbling infrastructure.
A government insider, speaking on the condition of anonymity, claimed that the council’s dysfunction is largely to blame for Harare’s sorry state. “With dry water taps, uncollected garbage, and burst sewer trunks contaminating water sources, Harare’s dream of becoming a world-class city remains very much like the historical Ophir—an imaginary nation filled with gold,” the source said. The reference to Ophir, a mythical land known for its wealth but never conclusively located, highlights the increasingly unrealized nature of Harare’s Vision 2025.
As residents face daily hardships, including water shortages, irregular garbage collection, and the contamination of water supplies due to sewer bursts, the situation in Harare has worsened. In the city’s high-density suburbs, where infrastructure is already stretched to breaking point, these challenges are compounded by a growing population. As more people move to Harare in search of opportunities, the city’s resources and infrastructure have become increasingly inadequate to meet demand.
However, while the Harare City Council is often blamed for these failings, some critics argue that the government is deliberately shifting responsibility to the local authority to hide its own shortcomings. The central government has provided limited support to the city over the years, particularly in addressing critical infrastructure issues such as water supply, sanitation, and waste management. The lack of financial and technical assistance from the government has left the council struggling to address these fundamental problems.
The government’s response to the crisis has largely been one of finger-pointing rather than concrete action. While it has urged the Harare City Council to address these issues and improve service delivery, there has been little indication of significant intervention or collaboration from the central government. Some critics argue that the government’s own failures in urban planning and resource allocation are at the heart of Harare’s woes, and that blaming the city council serves as a convenient distraction from the state’s broader governance issues.
Despite the finger-pointing, the government continues to assert its commitment to supporting Harare’s development, claiming that improvements can only be made through greater collaboration between the city council, national authorities, and residents. However, meaningful progress will require more than just political rhetoric. To achieve the Vision 2025 goals, the government must play a more active role in providing the financial and logistical support necessary to upgrade the city’s infrastructure and improve service delivery.
In the meantime, Harare’s road to becoming a “world-class city” seems increasingly uncertain. While the Harare City Council has been criticized for its leadership failures, the government’s own inability to address the underlying causes of the capital’s collapse cannot be ignored. Whether the city can overcome these challenges will depend not just on the city council’s ability to act, but on whether the government is willing to step up and take responsibility for the broader failures that have contributed to the crisis. As things stand, Harare’s dream of transformation appears increasingly out of reach.