A senior government official has suggested the State take over municipal administration of the capital, which has been paralysed by infighting in the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party which controls it, resulting in neglect of city civic duties.
Part of the neglect include failure to collect garbage, and to provide clean water to residents, which have given rise to a cholera outbreak in the city which has killed scores.
This has forced central government to step in and collect garbage, clean city environments, and drill boreholes to provide supplementary water to residents.
In view of this, presidential spokesman, George Charamba said it had become compelling for the State to just take over the running of Harare’s municipal affairs to provide sustained services to residents, especially health and sanitary-related.
“With the paralysis which CCC infighting has wrought on City of Harare, and given the raging cholera pandemic, it is about time (the) Local Government Minister approached His Excellency the President with the proposal to use Presidential Powers to bring Harare Municipality under direct State administration,” he wrote on X.
“There is a good case now using the public health argument. The State is doing much of the work anyway!”
The opposition CCC controls the capital’s local government, but because of infighting – pitting party leader Nelson Chamisa, and interim secretary general Sengezo Tshabangu – civic administration at the city’s municipality has been paralysed since elections in August last year.
Soon after the elections, Tshabangu recalled city mayor Ian Makone and other councillors, widely seen as aligned to Chamisa.
Two more mayors have been appointed and recalled by the rival factions in the party, the latest being Jacob Mafume whom Chamisa withdrew last week.
Tshabangu is, however, resisting Mafume’s recall, and the matter awaits determination by either the courts or central government.
It is against this background, where the CCC leadership is seen as more engrossed in fighting for factional supremacy in the party than delivering services in local government administrations where it controls, that Charamba is making calls for State intervention.
New Ziana
