Harare City Council thriving for the best service delivery

By Patricia Mashiri

The Harare city council is thriving to give best service delivery in the town. In trying to come up with best results the board held a rapid results initiative mid-term review workshop in the capital in which various departments including sanitation and potable water, among others, were looked into.

This mid-term review workshop was held on the backdrop of the new Ease of Doing Business (EDB) rankings where Zimbabwe marginally improved from 161 to 159. The improvement was attributed to the reforms by City of Harare.

In her opening remarks acting town clerk Mrs. Josephine Ncube said the mid-term review was very important since it gives them opportunity to refocus or reshape their goals.

“It is also a platform to assess whether we are on track and helps us to identify the areas where we need to put more effort,” Ncube said.

The Harare city had a plan has to develop a draft solid waste management plan December 2017 which was to increase refuse collection compliance to the schedule from the current 65% to 92% by 24 October 2017 which has been done but faced some challenges due to economic constraints.

The potable water department aims to resolve customer complaints on service delivery from estimated 68% to 82% within 24hrs by 13 December 2017. This is done through the cleaning of reservoirs.

The road traffic department aims to establish a framework for a mass transit system for Harare by 13 December 2017 and to set up governance structures for the Harare combination master plan review.

Mrs Ruby Tapera, the team leader of Ease of Doing Business said their department aims to increase revenue from investment activities from $96 964 366 to $104 102 076by 7% by 13 December 2017.

“We have been able to make electronic production of business licenses, partial certificates of compliance, building inspection fees and penalties on illegal structures,” said Tapera.

The council is working engaging all stakeholders in trying to improve the service delivery in town.