Masunda out of touch with reality

Editor — The Harare Residents’ Trust (HRT) has been monitoring media reports emanating from Town House with keen interest and has become seriously disturbed by reckless utterances by Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda.

He was quoted in The Herald (August 12 2010) insisting that the solution to the crisis affecting service delivery in Harare had more to do with huge debts owed by commercial enterprises (US$78 476 million), residents (US$36 245 million), government (US$12 207 445), Norton (US$603 593), Ruwa (US$3 554) and Epworth owes the city less than US$300, totalling US$132 million.
His remarks come in the wake of government’s directives to local authorities to comply with the 70-30 percent ratio of service delivery and salaries. Masunda believes this is unachievable because this is not a “normal situation”.
The mayor is being unrealistic. Junior city employees are wallowing in poverty as a result of unexplained delays in paying out their salaries, every month, yet senior managers get paid on time.
Central government has the right to intervene when the rights of ordinary citizens are trampled on by elitists masquerading as professionals, who lack a connection with the harsh economic, social and political environment.
Residents have a legitimate right to withhold their rates and rentals to the City of Harare if it continues to focus on enriching its underperforming senior managers. Service delivery has slightly improved since the coming in of this council in March 2008, but it is far from satisfactory.
Self-praise by Masunda on water delivery is deceptive and hollow. Residents are committed to paying their rates and rentals to the council, but expect quality services that relate to the charges.
The HRT reiterates its demand for transparency and accountability by service providers and elected representatives, which the City of Harare has failed to achieve in its handling of residents’ issues.
The City of Harare went against the residents who objected to the current 2010 city budget when the council adopted the budget in November last year.
When the city advertised the proposed budget in December last year, as provided for in the Urban Councils’ Act, residents raised more than the mandatory 30 objections and thousands others signed petitions objecting to the budget proposals. What should have happened in terms of the Urban Councils’ Act (Chapter 29:15), is that the city should have come up with revised figures lower than the objected rates. Residents objected to the proposed budget not for the sake of objecting but because they could not and still cannot afford the current rates and rentals. Still the City of Harare, with the backing of a ministerial directive, maintained the rates at last year’s levels, this despite evidence that the majority of the residents were unable to pay the huge bills.
The mayor’s responses to the queries on the huge salaries being paid out to senior managers have demonstrated beyond doubt that putting unelected officials at the helm of strategic institutions has its own weaknesses.
Citizens have not benefited from Masunda’s expertise as a businessman. Since being elected as the ceremonial mayor, Masunda has not sided with the electorate as the chief policymaker at Town House. Instead he has constantly sided with some incompetent heads of departments who have been previously castigated by the elected councillors as insubordinate and bent on undermining their policymaking roles, power and authority.
The Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Sessel Zvidzai’s directive that 70 percent of city revenue should go towards service delivery is justified, achievable and reasonable in the eyes of the residents of Harare. Masunda should explain the 9 500 workers in the city, department by department, and specify what percentage each grade is getting of the total money spent on workers’ salaries, every month.
The resistance by the mayor to comply with the deputy minister’s directive, which is a central government directive, clearly demonstrates beyond doubt that Masunda is becoming too big for his shoes. His reasoning is driven by the desire to amass wealth at the expense of the ratepayer. City heads of departments are in the employ of the public and there is nothing confidential about their salaries and perks. The residents of Harare have a legitimate right to know how much the directors earn from the ratepayers’ money. If the mayor wants to be a legal consultant, as he has on several occasions tried to be, he should resign forthwith and leave that position to competent people who want to serve the interests of the ordinary people.
Given the above issues, the HRT makes the following recommendations to improve service delivery and cash-flows to the City of Harare;
-The Urban Councils’ Act (Chapter 29:15) should be amended to ensure that local authorities are led by elected mayors, who derive their mandate from the residents, and not from their political parties.
- Mayor Masunda should desist from making statements that undermine the concerns of residents with regards to transparency, accountability and governance at Town House.
-The City of Harare should make the necessary adjustments to its huge salary bill, in line with the government’s directive.
- Residents of Harare, industry and business should pay justified rates and rentals and not allow themselves to be held at ransom by Masunda and his colleagues in the top management of the City of Harare who take home 70 percent of the city’s revenue in salaries and allowances against service provision of 30 percent.
-The mayor should drop his attitude and listen to the voice of stakeholders who have repeatedly expressed concern at the city’s rates and services.
Failure by the City of Harare to heed this call, the HRT will be left with no option but to mobilise residents against undue exploitation by an elite class managing public resources at Town House. One of the options is for residents, business and industry to delay payment by two weeks every month until service delivery really improves.