Back to Index

Harare reviews by-laws
The Herald (Zimbabwe)
June 17, 2005

http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=44424&pubdate=2005-06-17

HARARE City Council is reviewing all its by-laws to re-align them with current challenges the city is facing, a council official has said.

In an interview yesterday acting city treasurer Mr Cosmas Zvikaramba said most of the city by-laws were outdated and needed to be reviewed to meet current trends.

Mr Zvikaramba said council was making a loss instead of earning money from services rendered such as penalties charged because they are a pittance.

For instance, failure to display a pre-paid parking disc attracts a paltry $33 000, a fine not deterrent enough for Harare motorists who have over the years boycotted designated parking lots for charging what they called prohibitive costs.

As a result, council slashed its hourly charges from $10 000 to $3 800 while parking fees for a day at Fourth Street were cut from $16 756 to $7 200.

"Take for instance the penalties imposed under refuse and dumping in our current by-laws. The fines imposed on those who dump refuse on undesignated areas is pathetic as it is far less than what council required to move the litter to designated areas," he said.

Touting, illegal vending, construction of structures are some of the areas that also attract paltry fines.

The fines should be punitive and deterrent enough so that people desist from willful dumping of litter everywhere, he said.

"If you have people repeating the same offence it shows that the fines or penalties imposed are not deterrent enough. In that regard council is reviewing all its by-laws to put them in line with current the challenges," said Mr Zvikaramba.

However, council was making frantic efforts to have the fines reviewed upwards to meet the current inflationary trends.

Efforts have included the introduction of prohibitive towing and wheel clamping charges for various traffic offences in the central business district.

Harare was facing numerous problems such as indiscriminate dumping of refuse.

Council was overwhelmed by the increase in the number of people living in Harare resulting in the city failing to effectively discharge services.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP