Back to Index

City of Harare proposed 2011 Budget
Harare Residents' Trust (HRT)
February 25, 2011

The Harare Residents' Trust (HRT) remains committed to ensuring that the views of the residents of Harare should be considered and respected by the City of Harare. It is unjustified and against the law governing the administration of local authorities, the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29:15) for the City of Harare, a mere institution established to serve the residents of Harare, to impose on the residents of Harare an ill-formulated and elitist budget given the current economic status of the nation. Through its community advocacy work, the HRT continues to receive complaints of poor service delivery, ineffective representation of residents by elected councillors and entrenched corruption within the corridors of power at Town House and Rowan Martin Building, the centre of City of Harare's administration. This makes the City of Harare's standpoint that reviewing the proposed utility figures downwards would affect service delivery.

The HRT engages in evidence-based advocacy where we demand facts in order to help policymakers, service providers and the residents to make informed decisions. It is disheartening that the City of Harare has chosen to pursue a path of confrontation when it lacks the means to influence the citizenry in a positive manner. They have continued to ignore the views and plight of residents. The proposed rates should be reduced in line with the demands of the citizenry, or at least they must demonstrate willingness to compromise on these sensitive issues.

The HRT managed to convene two meetings with representatives from Harare communities such as Mabvuku, Tafara, Mbare, Highfields, and Kuwadzana to mention a few where the proposed City of Harare budget was analyzed. The outcome was that the budget sharply contrasted with the wishes of the major stakeholder in the running of the City of Harare- residents- who fund the council operations. This led to 378 objection letters being sent to the City of Harare by concerned residents. The Urban Councils Act only requires 30 objections for the budget to be adjusted. Nonetheless, having sat down on 21 January 2011, the City of Harare Finance and Development committee failed to take into account this fact and argued that a reduction in the rates and even a slight one will upset their plans on service provision.

Attempts by the HRT to have a peaceful protest just before the end of 2010 were thwarted by the police who argued that we would bring chaos to the CBD as there was potential for many people to participate. Below we highlight what the HRT has done in the defence of residents' rights to participate fully in the administration of the City of Harare.

• The organization convened meetings to deliberate on the budget and came up with strong positions.
• We have approached the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development in an effort to make the City of Harare reduce the proposed rates. There has been no communication from the Ministry to date. The HRT is of the view that the public institutions of the day that is the City of Harare and the Ministry of local government are not responsive to the expressed needs of the residents of Harare.
• The HRT on Wednesday submitted its position papers to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government requesting them to convene a public hearing on the 2011 City Budget, in the interests of citizenship participation and the defence of the principle of the rule of law. We still await a response from the committee.

HRT Message to the Residents of Harare:

• Residents of Harare in both high and low density suburbs should only pay a fixed rate of US$15 to the City of Harare every month, and keep receipts, to ensure that they are up to date with their rentals and rates. This will go on until the City of Harare has acceded to the demands of the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29:15) and the finalization of the court case which the HRT is filing with the High Court.
• Spread the Message and Be a Part of the Transformation You Really Need. No more abuse by Local Authorities. The Message must be loud and clear.
• The bills from the City of Harare are inconsistent and should be drastically revised to reflect reality, and not the estimates that residents have been provided with.
• The HRT, through its lawyers have filed papers with the High Court for an order compelling the City of Harare to shelve the implementation of the 2011 City Budget, and pray that the courts also order them to re-convene consultative meetings to ensure there is citizenship participation as intended by the Legislature when they enacted the Urban Councils Act. For more information on the court case please call Belinda Chinowawa on +263-774-044212.
• Residents are urged to mobilize in their communities to attend the court proceedings and show your determination to have justice delivered.
• Let us be strong and of good courage. It is important to unite around the budget issue so that we begin to influence those who take our money and misuse it while we remain silent.

Visit the Harare Residents' Trust fact sheet

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