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Residents shocked by Announcement of Harare City 2010 budget . . . as they profess ignorance of any consultations being made
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
December 03, 2009

The 2010 Harare city budget, which was announced by the City of Harare on the 30th of November, has been met with shock and disappointment among residents of Harare who have said that the Harare City Council is taking them for granted. CHRA spoke to residents in the different wards who expressed disappointment at the fact that the City of Harare did not consult them during the budget formulation process and that they were actually shocked that the budget is already out.

CHRA contacted the Deputy Mayor, Honorable Chiroto, to raise the concerns of the residents with him. Honorable Chiroto tried to play down the gravity of the issue by saying that the budget was just a proposal since 'consultations are still in progress' and that there is still room to make some changes. However, the statements of the Deputy Mayor were conflicting with those of some of the Councilors who pointed out that wide consultations have been conducted. Upon enquiring why residents in their respective wards were complaining of non-consultation, the Councilors said the residents are just trying to 'raise alarm because they failed to attend the meetings'. The CHRA Coordinator for Ward 46, Sarudzai Kembo, said that the Councilor in their Ward scheduled the consultation meeting on a Sunday; a day that he knew most people would be at their places of worship. The Councilor, however, proceeded to conduct the meeting with less than ten residents present. Same reports have been received by CHRA representatives from other wards. Councilor Kapare from Ward 7 said that the meetings were advertised on ZTV, which has very few subscribers and with the prolonged power cuts electronic media has become one of the least effective channels of advertising. It defies logic to note that the Council opted to use the television instead of conducting community mobilization through the Councilors to ensure maximum attendance and participation of residents in the meetings.

The Combined Harare Residents Association had earlier conducted a meeting (in October) with the City of Harare Finance Committee and Deputy Mayor to discuss how the budget consultations could be conducted in order to ensure maximum participation of residents. The two parties had agreed that CHRA would provide the contact details of its ward leaders to the City's Chamber Secretary and the contacts would then be circulated to the Councilors who would in turn work with the CHRA ward leadership to mobilize residents at grassroots level. However, the City of Harare opted to use the route of television adverts and newspapers which unfortunately are not effective ways to mobilize the grassroots communities.

The 2010 City budget that has been upped by almost 300% (USD505 million) from the USD185 million for 2009 has been met with a lot of criticism by most residents who have described the City of Harare as being over-ambitious. It is ironic that the City of Harare actually expects more from residents who have been complaining about the already exorbitant service charges and have failed to meet the demands of the much lower 2009 city budget; not to mention the fact that the Council is at loggerheads with residents for demanding money for non-existent services. Piles of uncollected refuse continue to litter most shopping centers, save for those areas in which goodwill organizations like CHRA, GOAL and Environment Africa have conducted clean-up campaigns on a regular basis. The potholed roads have become a death trap to motorists especially with the onset of the rainy season.

CHRA foresees another rates boycott if the City of Harare does not resolve these outstanding issues with residents. Relations between the Council and residents have continued to deteriorate and the situation could worsen if the issue of the budget is not handled properly.

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