Suburban
Suburban Reporter
THE City of Harare believes it has great investment potential but needs to unlock it through the conclusion of the Harare Combination Master Plan which will lay future growth and development of the city.
Council says the Master Plan should be prioritised and concluded in 2023 to enable the city to unlock its value in terms of investment potential.
Presenting Harare’s 2023 budget at Town House in November last year, the chairperson of Finance and Economic Development Committee chairperson Councillor Costa Mande said the city foresees itself making a major contribution to the national fiscus.
“Your Worship, as a broad measure which seeks to unlock value, the city needs to conclude the Harare Combination Master Plan in 2023. This will give a conceptual layout of future growth and development of the city as council envisages to make a significant contribution to the national fiscus through growth in Local Gross Domestic Product.
“It is important that this project be given priority implementation in the year 2023 as it will set the tone for development in the city. It will speak to potential investment areas, which will promote domestic and foreign investment,” said Cllr Mande.
He said Harare should also pursue public private partnerships in infrastructure development since it does not have the capacity to fund infrastructure projects on its own.
“Furthermore, Your Worship, the city is a fertile ground for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure development since the city has no capacity to do it alone given huge capital outlays required for this. The city has an active business development unit whose task is to market available opportunities and receive proposals from private investors for mutual benefit to both players,” Cllr Mande.
Presenting his State of the City Address in August this year, Harare Mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume said the major focus for this part of the year was to review the Harare Combination Master Plan (HCMP) which should be done after 15 years but is now over 25 years old.
“This project is now being spearheaded by central Government because it includes other local authorities around Harare. However, we are reviewing the Harare Master Plan which is a vehicle through which the City of Harare will promote development and growth of the city. The review will foster order and help deal with city challenges,” said Cllr Mafume.
He said the Harare Master Plan project is currently at 10 percent complete and they target to complete it by 2024 but funding was the major constraint.
“The development of the Master Plan is being constrained by funding. Your City is requesting stakeholders to partner us in the development of this Master Plan. Local Development Plans: We successfully developed three Local Developments Plans and six other plans are at different stages of development. Our focus going forward is integrated planning,” said Cllr Mafume.
A recent survey done by the Office of the Secretary Provincial Affairs and Devolution for Harare Metropolitan Mr Tafadzwa Muguti has revealed that most businesses in Harare Metropolitan Province are operating illegally.
Mr Muguti said the survey revealed that 75 percent of the business operating in Harare, Chitungwiza, Ruwa and Epworth were doing so illegally.
In view of this revelation, Mr Muguti has warned corrupt officials within the local authorities in Harare Metropolitan Province namely the City of Harare, Chitungwiza Municipality and Epworth Local Board responsible for creating the chaos.
He said the corrupt officials’ time was up as the province gears up to get all businesses to contribute to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Mr Muguti said it was disheartening that such a large percentage of businesses in Harare Metropolitan Province was operating illegally with only the legal 25 percent of contributing around half of the national GDP.
He said this state of affairs meant the Government had to support genuine businesses so that they contribute more to the GDP.
“A few months ago my office conducted a survey in the Harare Metropolitan Province where we wanted to see how many businesses are operating illegally. It was disheartening that we noted that 75 percent of businesses were operating illegally.
These businesses were not registered and they were not paying their taxes meaning the country was not benefiting anything from them. They were just operating. The 25 percent of legitimate businesses operating in the Harare Metropolitan province are contributing between 51 to 59 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP),” he said.
He went on to warn local authorities who have been turning a blind eye on the illegal businesses and taking bribes to allow these ventures to operate that their time was up.
