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Harare city crisis purely political
Michael Davies, Chairperson for Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
November 21, 2004

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/read.php?st_id=1076

The views and opinions contained herein are solely mine and may or may not reflect official CHRA policies and positions.

Takura Zhangazha wrote a recent piece in The Standard "Challenging Chombo's undue influence" (Opinion, 17 October 2004). As a member of the residents' movement for the last 6 years and an office bearer of the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) since 1999, I can comment from experience on many of the problems that he raises.

Historically local government has always been regarded as an extension of central government and the concept of local democracy has seldom been discussed let alone implemented.

Zhangazha correctly although reluctantly acknowledges that everything is political. Of course it is. Politics is essentially the process that determines 'who gets what'. Local issues are no less political than national issues and while everyone is affected by issues of water, refuse, sewerage, etc, it is obvious that different people have different ideas about addressing the problem. The issues are not only technical: whether your road or mine is repaired is a archetypal political decision. In an ideal situation, such a decision would be made primarily on technical grounds (road usage, age, etc) but it would still be a political decision. I think Zhangazha conflates two distinct phenomena: 'political process' and 'partisan politics'.

The water crisis is a political crisis. The failure of successive councils to invest adequate capital and maintenance in the provision of potable water was a political decision to use resources elsewhere and to live off the fat of the land, leaving the inevitable crisis to future councils to sort out.

Harare is inundated with garbage. Far from being a question solely of money or fuel, the failure of council to ensure refuse collection is again a political decision. The ill-conceived and poorly-executed privatisation of refuse services which saw the awarding of contracts to political heavyweights was a political decision which took service delivery away from a public body and placed it in the hands of profit-driven unaccountable private companies.

These problems arise essentially because of the failure of our political system. Instead of moaning about the symptoms of our problems, CHRA chose to focus on the cause of our problems and to address questions of democracy, legitimacy, accountability and transparency. While most people don't wish to consider these so-called abstract concepts, such principles are at the very basis of 'good governance'. Without them, council will be inefficient and will continue to exist primarily to serve the regime at our expense. Those who call CHRA too political fail to understand our position and would rather see our energies going into symptom patching. We will not become accomplices to a fraudulent and corrupt system however and will continue to highlight the serious political, institutional and structural causes of our plight.

This is a reality that we must accept unless we are committed to quixotic delusions. The problems arise from a opaque and corrupt process which excludes the residents and imposes decisions that cannot be challenged. This can only be solved through a new political culture that not only permits the participation of residents but demands it. Transparency and accountability are prerequisites of any acceptable system. Such a culture can only develop through cultural change enhanced by legislative and structural frameworks.

We must therefore examine our current political economic and social reality.

The Urban Councils Act of 1996 which gave rise to directly elected Executive Mayors is fatally flawed. While minimal elements of democratic participation appear to be incorporated in the Act (direct elections and the ability to object to budget proposals), that alarming word "notwithstanding" appears 28 times in the legislation, thoroughly negating such elements and placing absolute power in the hands of central government. While the provision for the election of councillors and an Executive Mayor would seem to allow implicitly for non-ruling party members to be elected at local level, one must remember that when the bill was enacted, zanu-pf believed that it would rule in perpetuity and the very idea of a meaningful opposition would have been dismissed out of hand. The drafters of the bill obviously had no conception of the potential conflicts that would arise from such faulty legislation and were working on the assumption that the de facto one-party state prevailing since 1987 would not disappear. So we have an entrenched arrogance by the holders of state power that prevents any movement to a decentralised participatory democratic dispensation. The idea of autonomous councils implementing the mandate of residents bestowed through free and fair elections is frankly laughable under this centralist nightmare foisted upon us by a rogue regime This is the political obstacle we have to overcome before we can progress.

We must also consider the socio-economic realities of Harare to understand people's motivations and the social dynamics of the city. Some years ago CHRA carried out a survey of residents' perceptions to provide an objective guide to our activities. It was clear from the results of the survey that the great majority of residents did not regard themselves as permanent citizens of the city and that their primary allegiances lie kumusha. Ask the people you meet where their homes are and usually the answer will be Bikita or Murewa or Murambinda, etc, and seldom Kuwadzana or Glen View or any of our suburbs. This is a fundamental problem since people prefer understandably to invest their resources in developing their homes. If they are only migrant workers in the city, they will reap what they can and send any surplus 'back home'. As late as the mid-fifties, most residents of Harare were technically 'foreigners'; whites or migrant workers from Mozambique or Malawi. I would argue that most residents continue to be foreigners, albeit internal, and until we have indigenous Hararians with no other loyalties, we will not see the civic consciousness that characterises Bulawayo for instance. This is essential if we are to see a broad-based commitment to the well-being of our city.

Zhangazha states that "there is a subtle if sometimes non-existent discontent with the Chombo sanctioned remnants at Town House". This dissatisfaction does not develop into a critique let alone action but remains at a semi-conscious level, rationalised away by any number of self-serving delusions. CHRA has on many occasions sought to articulate the concerns of residents and to seek solutions. We have been successful in some areas but we have failed in the essential business of getting residents to commit their energy to the well-being of the city. Most people do not want to know since they would then have to think and, God forbid, even take a stand!

In view of the massive growth in Harare's population caused by rural poverty and exacerbated by ill-conceived 'land reforms', it is unlikely that the current situation will change. Harare will continue to be inhabited by those who only want to make a quick buck and get out, to use and abuse our facilities while giving nothing back to society. Nearly every aspect of city life bears the scars of this abuse. From collapsing council health and education facilities to the litter on the streets to the theft of street lights and signs to non-payment of rates by chefs and others, Harare is being sucked dry by parasites who take advantage of the breakdown in law and order to rip off whatever they want in pursuit of private profit at the expense of the public good, confident that they will never be caught, let alone prosecuted.

For the foreseeable future, the residents' movement will be driven by a vanguard of residents who have the vision for and commitment to our city. At some point in the future we may see mass membership develop and a legislative framework installed to give recognition and power to residents associations but certainly not under this regime! Personally I would like to see statutory associations created in every ward funded through rates with automatic membership for legitimate residents who then have sole or cheaper access to council facilities. Frankly the idea that a person from Gokwe should be able to come to Harare and use my local library or clinic at my expense is bizarre! Don't misunderstand me: I am not opposed to urban migration and I believe that cities can offer an escape from grinding rural poverty, but let us have real immigrants who will contribute to our communal well-being, not temporary passengers who will return kumusha as soon as they are able.

CHRA believes that people should have control over their lives and environments. We are committed to decentralised local government structures that function independently of central government control. By clearly defining responsibilities, conflict with central authorities should be reduced and a myriad of living arrangements encouraged to develop. Contrary to nationalist mythology, it is not through trumpeting fake unity (of the "Now we are united, shut up and do what I tell you" type) but through embracing diversity that we will achieve the social maturity that allows for pluralism, debate and progress.

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