ON Monday, Harare councillors elected seasoned Glen Norah
(Ward 27) councillor Herbert Gomba as the capital city’s mayor. Gomba presides
over a crisis-ridden metropolis which is struggling to deliver essential
services to its estimated three million residents, including those in satellite
towns. The city is also facing many challenges, including failure to collect
meaningful revenue and is now owed over US$700 million by ratepayers. Zimbabwe
Independent reporter Andrew Kunambura (AK) met Gomba (HG) to discuss his plans
for the city. Below are excerpts of the interview:
AK: You have served in the Harare City Council as a
councillor since 2008. How does it feel to be its mayor after all those years?
HG: I feel greatly honoured and I also have at the back of
my mind the feeling that I do not want to disappoint the people of Harare.
AK: There is a lot of excitement in the high-density areas
of the city, where people are saying we finally have a mayor who is one of our
own, one who will better understand the issues they are facing and some have
even nicknamed you the ghetto mayor. What does that mean to you?
HG: Yes, I am from the high-density areas, which means that
I am a common man. But I am expected to work for the entirety of the city. It’s
not about where you are from; it’s about your drive to serve. I thank them,
however, for their appreciation. Life is dynamic, it is God in the end that
gives people statuses and creates opportunities in their lives. So it’s a
question of working together for our collective benefit as a city.
AK: Harare has faced many challenges related to service
delivery. What strategy do you have as you begin your five-year term?
HG: We just need to come with a transformational strategy
as council. We need a plan that mitigates some of the problems which are at
various levels. The first which we need to attend to urgently is the road
system. Continuous improvements of the water system are also required. We have
just come up with a resolution that banned a certain water treatment chemical
which caused a greyish colour in our potable water, which was aluminium chloride.
We need to make sure that we use chemicals that are in line with the
expectations of residents of the city.
AK: Related to that is the issue of revenue which council
has struggled for years to collect and is now owed close to a billion dollars
by ratepayers. How do you hope to address that?
HG: There is revenue from the traditional sources and there
is new revenue that we are expecting from creation of new entities to create
wealth. There is no reason why council sewer cannot be turned into organic
fertiliser, especially now that we are disposing sewer into water sources. We
should be looking at capacities around and be able to generate wealth from
those low hanging fruits. We are also looking at waste-to-energy; I have
already directed the relevant department to pursue this matter to the fullest
end. We are also looking at charging the telecommunications companies on their
cables and properties which have been sitting on council properties without
paying anything for years. There is good revenue to come from that. They have
got to pay.
AK: There is also this controversial issue, whereby council
has previously hired debt collectors to recover debts owed by residents. Are we
going to see council continuing to use these extrajudicial measures?
HG: Our thrust is to condition the ratepayer so that she or
he understands that what is due to council should be paid. We are not here to
do anything extraordinary to force people to pay, but we will talk to them
starting with the residents’ associations. My role is to interact with big
businesses and I will soon have a meeting with some of them to ensure that they
pay what is due to council.
AK: Let’s talk about the issue of vendors. There have been
several unsuccessful attempts to move them out of the city centre. How are you
going to deal with them?
HG: If you remove them violently, they are bound to come
back because they have nowhere else to go. As council, we should create space
for them, construct proper structures where they would be selling and then talk
to them and make sure that the market is there. We will thus have to make those
points available to transport operators to transport people to those areas so
that the market is there. At the same time, we also call upon the central
government to make sure that it deals with the economic problems we are facing.
That is the only thing which is driving people to the streets. We are only
facing results of an economic implosion. At a time we are trying to sort the
city, the economy is going down and people are being thrown out of jobs. The
long-term solution is to create an economy that gives people employment. The
short term is to create more spaces for them to go and sell there.
AK: Closely linked to that is the issue of rogue commuter
omnibuses and pirate taxis commonly known as mushikashikas which are a menace
in the city. It’s one aspect crying out for attention and residents would be
keen to know what plans you have to address that.
HG: We have a memorandum of understanding with a certain
bus company that we are going to engage to ensure that we reintroduce the urban
bus system. That is easier because they respect the council by-laws and would
use designated pick-up points.
AK: But while you are making those long-term plans, these
people are literally wreaking havoc in the city, what short-term measures do
you have?
HG: We are going to engage the Zimbabwe Republic Police. We
don’t have arresting powers as council. We have where we start and where we end
and what the government should be doing is not what we can do. In a small way
we are also going to make use of our municipal police to make sure we rein in
on them but, surely, all we need to understand is that the central government
is reposed with powers to deal with them decisively.
AK: There are also reports of corruption within the council
secretariat. What should we expect from council in that respect?
HG: Surely as council, we are not expected to mark our own
exams, we are looking at bringing people from outside to analyse our systems.
We will hire other people to look at our systems so that they see where we need
to close gaps.
AK: And what plans do you have for the failing council
businesses?
HG: The previous council dissolved the Harare Sunshine
Holdings board. Companies which used to form Harare Sunshine Holdings are now
under the direct control of the town clerk and, from my understanding, the town
clerk has already started working on how they can be viable. We however intend
to create new businesses. I am thinking of creating an organic fertiliser
company.
We should be selling our sewer somewhere. I am also looking
at the sewer-to-energy company. What we need to do is to put up some
frameworks. Council committees are going to be delegated to attend to those
frameworks. So far, City Parking is the only company which is viable and
growing. The others are dying and we are going to dispose of them.
AK: There are also well-documented fights between the
Harare mayor and the minister of local government and, given the outcome of the
July 30 election, the minister will come from Zanu PF and we don’t see that
turf war stopping anytime soon, judging by recent history. Do you think you are
going to handle the issue differently from other mayors who have taken those
ministers head-on?
HG: I don’t see any reason why I should fight the minister
and I also see no reason why the minister should fight me. What is required is
to simply complement each other’s effort. The minister should make it possible
for us to work
AK: But that has been the real problem. ministers have
shown no willingness to respect the autonomy of council. How will you handle
that?
HG: It’s a matter of us reaching out to the minister to say
“let’s work together; hopefully”. Whoever the minister shall be, he or she
should be able to shake our hands and come on board.
AK: You have chaired the council committee on environment
before and one of the most critical issues you faced was refuse collection. Now
that you are the mayor, what is your waste management strategy?
HG: This crisis was induced by the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe. Council organised to buy refuse collection trucks, but the central
bank has not released the required foreign currency to enable us to bring the
trucks. Right now, 15 of the trucks are stuck in South Africa, as well as three
graders and three tipper trucks. Some road construction equipment is also stuck
in South Africa.
AK: So all in all, how many trucks do you have?
HG: There will be 30 new trucks if those from South Africa
arrive. We already have 45 old ones which are frequently breaking down and are
in need of replacement. We need at least 70 trucks functioning fully in order
to be able to manage refuse collection in Harare. On top of that, we need to
incorporate other areas like Harare South and Caledonia which have not received
such a service.
AK: What are you going to do about the issue of land
barons?
HG: We are going to engage the communities and educate them
against falling victim to these criminals. We also need to engage the police so
that the land barons can be arrested. We will also engage political parties to
ensure that they discourage their supporters from invading council land. More
importantly, we are also approaching the courts so that they will be dealt with
in accordance with the law.
AK: There has also been an outcry regarding council
sponsoring the Harare City Football Club at the expense of service delivery
which saw the former mayor heavily criticising the idea and even stepping down
as the club’s chairperson. Are you also going to abandon it?
HG: If you look at some of the mandates of council, they
require that we promote social services and that is why we have football
stadiums and sports clubs. We need to fulfil our mandate on that front and
football is part of the social services we should provide. What needs to be
done is to look at the cost, not necessarily to attack it on the basis of it
not being a priority area. We can’t do it at the expense of other services. I
will ask the responsible committee to look at what has been happening and
review the cost so that we don’t prejudice other areas. We will also engage
other stakeholders to find out if it’s still necessary to keep the team but,
otherwise, the team must look for its own sponsorship to complement what it
gets from council.
AK: Lastly, what word do you have for the residents of the
city?
HG: Let’s work together. We have been blaming each other
unnecessarily; council saying you are not paying, residents saying we are not
receiving any services. Residents are the owners of the city so we need to sit
down with them and discuss. The moment we start pointing fingers at each other,
we miss the point. So we are saying this is a new era, let’s work together and
complement our efforts. If I am expected to deliver water as council, we must
be able to do that and they must be able to pay.
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