Opinion / Columnist
Kasukuwere our hope on urban centres mess
08 Jul 2015 at 16:59hrs | Views
The new appointment and deployment of Cde Saviour Kasukuwere to Local Government, Public Works and National Housing is a welcome development as he promises action more than anything else. The most encouraging aspect is the fact that, Cde Kasukuwere is famous for being a man of action rather than lip-service.
Zimbabweans are curious to see a transformation of this sector which is characterized by filthy brought along by vendors in urban centres, particularly in Harare's Central Business District. All streets have been reduced to jungles with haphazard piles of smuggled second goods, a lot of noise pollution, obstruction on roads and pavements, heaps of junky, illegality and criminality by dubious vendors, violation of the rights of formal dealers that pay taxes to government, and a looming health hazard due to lack of ablution facilities on these streets flooded with illegal vendors and their prospective clients.
This state of affairs has robbed the city of its pre-existing Harare's sunshine city status. It is refreshing to note that Cde Kasukuwere is coming just in time to wipe-out this anarchy propelled by the laisezz faire which is promoted by city fathers that are ensconced in their seats at Town House rejoicing hefty perks and state of the art vehicles for watching this ugly chaos with their insatiable admiration of folly from the terraces as if they are spectators in a soccer game in a stadium.
His promise of clearing the streets is the best thing the generality of public is expecting to take toll now or empting the Town House if the city fathers are tired of executing their core-responsibility. They need not to be held with kid gloves as if they are eggs. They should explain to rate payers which laws they are respecting in the face of this menace posed by vendors jammed-up in the capital city.
Apart from this vending nuisance, the city is overwhelmed by an acute shortage of housing to service an estimated 2, 98 million residents as declared in the preliminary census results of the latest enumeration. The housing units are so limited that over 90% of the residents are lodgers. Some unscrupulous land barons are exploiting this scenario by engaging into illegal land dealings in which they swindle home-seekers of their hard-earned cash. This gave rise to numerous illegal land invasions by criminals who exploit the ruling party ZANU-PF's name under the banner of housing cooperatives which in most cases are destroyed by authorities as was the case in the instance of Murambatsvina and many other similar operations in the city.
On this aspect, it is good to hear that Cde Kasukuwere pledges to bring sanity in this respect. Surely all people are desperately looking for housing in the capital city to no avail or they end up being robbed of their cash by dubious land barons or land developers. He is really coming to rescue many people on this matter. Appropriate national institutions should back-up the minister's effort to bring change to the city.
This is coming on the back-drop of a national land reform programme which is expected to benefit both farmers and home-seekers in town and cities across the country. It is imperative that land be offered formally at law to needy people to avert unnecessary losses incurred by desperate land seekers.
Corrupt councilors that are taking a leading role in swindling people should be investigated, get apprehended and brought to book and/or face the full wrath of the law. These criminals diminish peoples' confidence in the operations of the government. So this should be dwelt with forthwith to establish normalcy on these issues which have been going unperturbed for quite some time now. The end should be now!
It is our hope that the same impetus driving Cde Kasukuwere in Urban Centres should also apply to his other portfolios like public works with equal force. This goes a long way in satisfying the primary objectives of ZIM-ASSET which is poised to resuscitate the national economy which is on the recovery pathway.
Source - Suitable Kajau
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