AS news of the cholera pandemic in Glen View gripped the nation and caught the attention of the world, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, among many other well-wishers, stepped in to lead the fight against the deadly disease.
Early this month, President Mnangagwa declared cholera a state of emergency as his administration works towards his widely endorsed Vision 2030 agenda.
Vision 2030 seeks to make Zimbabwe a middle-income economy by that time through the provision of quality healthcare, massive infrastructure rehabilitation and development, among other issues.
Infrastructure, in both the urban and rural areas, is top of his economic revival thrust and he has highlighted time and again that Zimbabwe is lagging behind other nations by almost two decades in that regard and he intends to leapfrog countries that have overtaken Harare.
But so many questions have gone unanswered in the cholera scandal.
In the current and previous set-up of the Harare City Council, dominated by the opposition MDC, did we have competent hands to offer quality service?
How did we end up in this situation in the first place?
How do we get rid of this pandemic?
“Someone slept on duty and this is one of the problems we must tackle as Zimbabwe. People must work. This whole problem is a result of blocked sewers and these were reported, but were never repaired for at least two months. Now we have the whole of Glen View and Budiriro being affected,” said Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo in The Herald of September 11, just a day after being sworn in as minister.
He was right.
Despite frantically trying to mask their glaring incompetence, pressure to deliver has been steadily mounting against the HCC.
They have failed to avail clean water to residents while heaps of garbage lie uncollected in most parts of Harare.
Roads have remained an eyesore with dilapidated infrastructure becoming the order of the day.
Further, the HCC has had to fend off damaging reports that the majority of revenue collected is going towards salaries of the local authority’s top brass.
On August 13 2017, The Sunday Mail reported that an independent commission had unearthed gross anomalies on the salary scale at the HCC compared to other sectors.
The commission noted much of the revenue collected by the local authority was going towards salaries at the expense of service delivery.
“Salaries being paid to municipal workers are above market averages, with a council housekeeper/cook earning a monthly basic of US$752 while a patrolman pockets US$622. Farm guards get US$552,” the paper noted in its report.
:A clinic matron earns US$1 400, a figure which is much higher than the US$600 paid to those at Government institutions.
The local authority has over 9 000 workers and spends between US$10 million and US$12 million monthly on remuneration.
The decision to cut salaries comes after top executives tried to resist changes to their mega salaries and allowances.
It was the council executives’ argument that the local authority had already reduced perks on August 15 2015.”
To make matters worse, the HCC has been failing to pay its workers on time, with some owed over four years’ salaries.
It gets worse for the HCC.
In 2010, the HCC and a Chinese company, China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation (CMEC) signed a US$144 million loan agreement for the refurbishment of water and sewage treatment plants.
The loan agreement was for the refurbishment of Morton Jaffray and Prince Edward water treatment plants and Firle and Crowborough sewage treatment plants.
Government was the guarantor of the loan.
Former HCC officials, Dr Tendai Mahachi, who was the town clerk, and Muchadeyi Masunda, who was mayor, signed the loan agreement with CMEC general manager Yang Yinan.
But it later turned out that HCC officials could have pocketed more than US$100 million through inflating prices of equipment for the US$144 million loan.
The anomaly in the actual prices of the equipment ordered and those tendered in the contract was discovered following an assessment of the deal by consulting engineer Peter Morris in December 2013.
Morris noted that prices of equipment charged by CMEC were at times five times more than those prevailing on the market.
He was hired under the Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund administered by the African Development Bank’s Urgent Water Supply and Sewerage Rehabilitation Project to assess the loan deal.
“An examination of rates where it has been possible to compare against other contracts (including Zimfund UWSSRP Phase I) suggests that prices are inflated in many cases by factors of 2, 3 or even 5 times,” Morris said in his report.
He cited the example of the cost of two boats pegged at US$91 393 each yet a local firm could supply a similar boat at US$20 000.
“There is a provision for two boats with 150HP motors to access the intake tower at a cost of US$91 393.
“A local firm is making a slightly smaller boat with a 150HP motor and trailer for US$20 000.”
But Government has been working round the clock to solve Harare’s perennial problems.
During his state visit to China in April this year, President Mnangagwa secured funding for the construction of the US$680 million Kunzvi-Musami Dam and for its commissioning into Harare’s water supply system.
Construction of the dam had been a victim of bureaucracy and lethargy as officials delayed processing of relevant papers for the project which was supposed to have commenced in the 1990s.
The construction of the dam is widely seen a panacea to Harare’s water problems, with the HCC currently generating 520 million mega litres per day against a demand of 1 200 million mega litres of water to the city a day.
The total package secured from China is US$940 million, meant to overhaul Harare’s water and sewer system.
Part of the funding, which also covers technical assistance, will go to bulk water supplies, purification works, sewer plants and waste water reticulation The Sunday Mail reported last week.
Secretary for Local Government, Public Works and National Housing George Magosvongwe told the publication last week that: “US$600 million of the funding will go towards construction of Kunzvi Dam, treatment works, conveyance system and storage reservoirs in Harare.
US$180 million is for rehabilitation and upgrading of portions of water distribution network, among other works which include replacement of a 54km transmission network (primary mains), and replacement of 208km of distribution mains (secondary and tertiary mains).
Rehabilitation of two distribution pumping stations and rehabilitation and installation of security facilities at 26 reservoir sites will also be covered on the US$180 million.”
The remaining US$160 million would be used to spruce up the main pumping lines from Warren Hills Control Station to all reservoirs.
It remains to be seen whether the HCC will, for once, step up to the plate and do what they are being overpaid for.