Parly blames Harare woes on political patronage, sabotage

via Parly blames Harare woes on political patronage, sabotage – NewsDay Zimbabwe March 12, 2015

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government, Public Works and Urban Planning has revealed that political patronage and sabotage are some of the factors disturbing efficiency at the City of Harare.

The committee, chaired by Mutasa South MP Irene Zindi (Zanu PF), presented its first report on service delivery at the City of Harare in the National Assembly.

The report quoted Harare Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni expressing doubt that the city would attain world-class status by 2025 as envisaged.
“The mayor indicated that professionalism did not exist in the City of Harare as workers exhibited multiple loyalties to political parties, councillors and ministries,” the committee report stated.

“He also cited serious revenue leakages in certain areas which, if dealt with, could help council support its service delivery. He indicated that the City of Harare was unable to contain its costs and there is a tendency of overpricing, and it was submitted that the city had a poor information management system because its BIQ software was performing at 50%, but the same system was said to be working at 95% at Bulawayo City Council.”

The committee said Manyenyeni implied that it might not be the system that was failing, but the people who deliberately made it fail.

“Some residents were now reluctant to pay their bills hoping that one day government will write off bills again,” the report said in relation to the 2013 debts cancellation.

On transport issues, the report revealed the Zimbabwe Republic Police and council officers had also engaged in the transport business, thereby creating conflict of interest.

“Vehicles of the said uniformed forces are not impounded despite the fact that they do not have the required documents. This has compromised their role to maintain order at the ranks. They lamented the leniency of police officers to those operators without documents because they get bribes and are very unreasonable to those who comply to the extent of looking for faults when there are none,” the committee said.

They recommended government should introduce an urban public transport system because Zupco was not performing.

“Zupco bought 305 buses since 2011 of which 240 are operational and 65 are grounded. The company has targeted to buy 100 buses every year. The committee suggested that the ministry should privatise Zupco since it seemed to be operating at a loss,” the committee report reads.