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Lusaka - Highfield report
Harare Residents' Trust (HRT)
June 07, 2011

Agenda

• Raising Awareness on the HRT
• Discussing Service Delivery
• Explaining the roles and responsibilities of elected representatives

Present: Eddington Mugova (Highfield Residents' Committee Chairman), Precious Shumba (HRT Coordinator) and Simbarashe Majamanda (HRT Membership Officer).

Executive Summary

A concerned resident of Highfield, Ms Mary Matibe, organized a focus group discussion (FGDs) for the HRT to be introduced to residents in the area. This came as a result of the recognition of the resident that the HRT is focused on addressing the concerns that residents of Harare have with service providers, especially the City of Harare. The discussion was attended by 19 participants who included 11 women and 8 men. Some of the participants came from Highfield Egypt area. The session was facilitated by Mugova and Majamanda. The participants were introduced to the HRT, its vision, goals, values, objectives and programs. They also expressed their thoughts on the work of the HRT and how it can be strengthened. For the work of the HRT to be enhanced the participants said that the membership of the organization should grow and that communication with service providers should intensify to enable improvements in service delivery. A key suggestion was that the HRT should seek to score success in issues that are affecting almost every resident in Harare for example the flawed billing system by the City council. It was highlighted that the HRT is apolitical and is a resident movement concerned with the dilapidated state of service delivery. Participants were informed of the HRT membership, benefits of membership or services offered to members in time of need. On membership issues, the residents were informed of the HRT Membership Mobilisation and Development Committee (MMDC) which was put in place to spearhead the process of membership mobilization, development and retention. The discussion presented the Lusaka residents with a platform to express their views on service delivery concerns. It came out that service delivery has seriously deteriorated in the community. Complaints were raised about the bad road network, poor water supplies, and repeated blackouts by ZESA, unaffordable school fees for pupils, decline in the quality of council clinic services, exorbitant bills by ZESA, lack of representation in local governance, absence of refuse collection and dysfunctional water meters. The residents explored their key challenges on each service offered by the local authority and proposed recommendations for improvement which are detailed in this report.

Welcome Remarks:

The HRT Membership Officer welcomed all the participants to the discussion. He said that the HRT is pleased that it has been able to penetrate the communities through FGDs since public meetings are now difficult to convene. He said that meetings with residents are important for HRT advocacy work and the lobbying for what the residents of Harare expect from service providers. He encouraged the participants to freely express their thoughts during the meeting.

Highfield Chairman: Mugova said the HRT was open to any resident of Harare, lodger or landlord. He said that this brought the idea of setting up the membership mobilization and development committee which is facilitating focus group discussions in different Harare communities with the following objectives:

• Educating communities on the HRT and the services it offers.
• Educating residents on HRT membership and benefits.
• Enabling communities to propose sound strategies for membership mobilization and development.
• Collecting information on key community service delivery concerns for HRT advocacy.
• Building the capacity of residents to monitor, evaluate service provision and demand accountability from their elected representatives like councillors.

Introducing the HRT:

Majamanda briefly outlined the history of the HRT saying the organisation was established in February 2008 by Mr Precious Shumba to advocate for effective representation of the residents of Harare in local governance issues. The HRT is concerned with the deteriorating service provision and the lack of responsiveness exhibited by service providers. He said the organization frequently heard concerns from the residents who have continued to pay money to service providers like ZESA and the City of Harare but there has been no improvement in service provision. He said the HRT exists to communicate with service providers on the necessary improvements that are expected by residents in service provision so as to improve living standards of the residents. He said that the HRT heavily relies on the concerns and suggestions of residents at community level for productive dialogue with service providers to enhance community service provision. He said that since 2008, the work of the HRT has been focused more in getting residents to understand that the organization exists to speak out on behalf of the residents in the governance of their communities. He said the HRT remains apolitical in its approach to development. He said having been established during the upheavals of 2008, there were perceptions that the HRT was founded to catalyze regime change at community level. The HRT has no sacred cows in its advocacy. City councillors will be praised good performances and criticized along the way for non-performance and the HRT will not apologize for doing that. He urged residents to take an active interest in the issues that affect them. The HRT provides residents with a platform for open engagement between residents and their service providers. This was in recognition of the fact that participation by the citizenry enhances service provision and empowers citizens to know and claim their rights.
The HRT has set up a committee to spearhead the process of membership, mobilization, development and retention. He said membership cards can be accessed also from the Highfield suburban structure after payment of $1.00. There are receipt books that are used to facilitate payment. The membership card is valid for one year. Majamanda informed the participants that the idea behind membership recruitment is to build an organization that is not solely dependent on donor funds but that is able to mobilize resources locally and thus ensuring sustainability of its programming. Members of the HRT have access to free legal aid services in times of problems that they may face for example illegal eviction from property and several other issues that affect residents daily. He highlighted that having a membership justifies the existence of the HRT but does not mean that the HRT discriminates against non members. He said that becoming a member is voluntary, and the right thing to do.

Feedback from the participants

The following points came out on membership and the work of the HRT:

• The participants said that there is need for the HRT to act of issues that are affecting the population of Harare as a whole to attract residents to become members of the organization.
• The City of Harare billing system is burdening residents as they felt that they were being billed for services not rendered.
• The HRT should concentrate on public education in the communities on residents' rights.

Key Service Delivery Concerns and Recommendations

Housing:

• Rates for council houses are unaffordable to the majority of residents. Most residents unemployed and widowed. One woman said that she has received a bill of up to $120.00 for her house and this is affecting her as she is a widow and cannot afford it.
• Council accommodation is not spacious and this has led to overcrowding in the rooms. Council has not fulfilled the rent to buy program. Residents have paid money under the rent to buy program to the City of Harare for over 20 years but they are yet to have title to their houses.

Recommendations

• The City of Harare has to come up with innovative ways of ensuring that more people have access to land to build own houses, especially people on the waiting list.
• Council should utilize a stipulated percentage of its monthly income to repair and upgrade existing accommodation facilities.
• City of Harare should make it easy for people to obtain title deeds to the residents living in rented accommodation.

Refuse Collection:

• Residents said that uncollected refuse is a problem in Lusaka. This has resulted in residents digging pits to deposit waste and the dumping of waste along roads and in public spaces and behind shops.

Recommendations:

• Garbage should be regularly cleared and the council should have a clear refuse collection schedule which they must adhere to.
• Council should stop billing residents for refuse collection if they are unable to offer the service to residents.

Water Supplies:

The local District Office has received reports of dysfunctional water meters but there has been no response from the office. The residents feel that the bills they are receiving from council are inflated as they do not reflect the real situation on the ground. The water rates are very high, unreasonable and unjustified.

• Council has not fulfilled its promise that senior citizens that are over 60 years should pay 50 percent of rates in monthly bills. Senior citizens received communication from Rowan Martin that they should pay at least 60% of the debt they "owe" council without fail. The residents said that their debts are as a result of the council rates and partly due to the conversion to the multi-currency system from the Zimbabwe dollar in February 2009 when the Government of National Unity was established.
• It was reported that the quality of water whenever there are supplies in their taps is bad and is contaminated with sewerage.

Recommendations:

• There is need to improve water supplies and purification.
• The debts that are in residents' accounts should be reduced and start afresh with reasonable monthly water charges.
• Non functioning meters should be replaced by council.

Education System:

The Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) is benefiting few children in the community which has led to many school dropouts who spent time in the neighborhoods hence fueling anti-social behavior and criminal behavior.

• The system of identification of beneficiaries is not transparent and is tainted with corruption. The fees that primary schools are charging are $25.00 and $70.00-75.00 for secondary schools. It was reported that the fees' structure is unaffordable and this is hindering school completion. Teachers at Mutasa, Nyandoro and Tsungayi primary schools are demanding incentives to facilitate lessons. The teacher incentive system has classified schools, a situation that is disadvantaging pupils from poor families.

Recommendations:

• There is need to reduce school fees in primary and secondary schools.
• The teacher incentives should be uniform in all schools, and is a responsibility of Government.
• The BEAM program should be funded to ensure that all needy children get assistance.
• BEAM should cater for the whole course of the child at primary level.

Health:

• Residents raised concern about the poor services that at the local clinics namely Utsanana council clinic and Highfield Satellite clinic where they said that there is delayed assistance by the nurses.
• They doubted the competence of nurses at the clinic who appear to be confused on how to assist patients. The identified health centers also lack efficient supplies on water and electricity which disrupt their operations.

Recommendations

• Water and electricity supplies should improve at the local clinics.
• Customer care should improve on the part of nurses at the local clinic.

Roads:

The roads in Lusaka are potholed and there are no humps along some of the major roads. Refuse is being dumped along the roads and there are no street lights.

Recommendations

• More priority should be placed on road maintenance and upgrading.
• ZINARA Funds have to be used to maintain urban roads.

Representation by Councilors

• The ward councillor has not held any meetings with residents, depriving them of an opportunity to express their issues with their councillor, who earns a monthly allowance on behalf of residents.

Recommendations:

• Incompetent councillors have to be recalled.

Power Supplies:

• The residents felt that the ZESA bills are estimates and left more people in huge debt. There are power cuts for prolonged durations in Highfield.

Recommendations:

• ZESA needs to follow its load shedding schedule and fairly distribute electricity.

Coordinator:

Shumba said councillors served to represent residents and to make policies, all to the benefit of the resident irrespective of political affiliation. The councillor belongs to one or two of the eight standing committees of council where he/she must articulate the concerns of residents and be able to make sound recommendations for adoption or refinement by the Full Council which meets every month at Town House from 4.30pm. He said that it is the observation of the HRT that councilors are not carrying out the mandate they are supposed to do for the communities which elected them.

"The duty of a councilor is to bridge the gap between the service provider and the resident. Not only that but they have to ensure that there is feedback on the issues that are debated at council level to the residents in the community," Shumba said.

He said that this shows accountability on the part of the councilor which is a characteristic of good leadership. He said that the position of the HRT on the dismissed councilors is that firstly the dismissal of councilors should be based on the performance of the councilor and never on political lines. He said that the HRT does not sympathize with councilors who are dismissed due to lack of performance.

The council committees are as follows;

• Environmental Management Committee, chaired by Ward 27 Councillor Hebert Gomba
• Finance and Development, Chaired by Ward 40 Councillor, Tonderai Karimakwenda
• Business, chaired by Ward 28 Councillor Wellington Chikombo
• Human Resources and General Purposes, chaired by Ward 43, Panganayi Charumbira
• Information and Publicity, chaired by Ward 35 Councillor Langton Gwinyai Mbira
• Procurement Board, chaired by Ward 7 Councillor, Masiye Kapare
• Education, Health, Housing, Community Services and Licensing, Chaired by Ward 6 Councillor Charles Joshua Nyatsuro

He said that the reason why the councilors sit in these committees is for them to meaningfully debate the issues of the residents for example if its an issue about summons to court for outstanding water bills the issue should be addressed by the Finance and Development committee or a department of council- treasury. He lambasted the idea of sending councilors to costly international workshops in Germany and other European countries, buying cars for councilors and hosting workshops locally in Victoria Falls and Kariba at the expense of the rate payer. He said that this behavior is deplorable and should not be repeated while the communities bear the brunt of a collapsed service delivery system. He said that the HRT has previously held meetings with ZESA in which the concerns of the residents on electricity supplies were aired. He said that by so doing the HRT is coming in to fill the gap that is there between the service providers and the resident. He concluded by saying that the HRT's position on outstanding debts is that these should be completed cancelled and start on a fresh page in 2011 because whether or not they have complied with this demand, residents are hard-hit economically and will not be able to settle their debts.

Visit the Harare Residents' Trust fact sheet

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