Suburban
MT Pleasant Heights is now under Ward 19 in Harare as part of Hatcliffe Constituency following the recent delimitation of wards and constituencies in preparation for the 2023 harmonised elections.
Suburban Reporter
Mt Pleasant Heights will now be under Ward 19 having previously been disenfranchised as the residents of the recently built suburb paid their rates in Harare although they were under Mazowe Rural District Council and had their voting rights in Mazowe South Constituency.
However, it remains to be seen how the residents of the newly built low density suburb will react to being placed under Ward 19 and in Hatcliffe Constituency as they seem to have preferred to be under Ward 17 (Mt Pleasant, Groombridge, Northwood)
Last year, Mt Pleasant Heights residents petitioned the City of Harare and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission over their disenfranchisement after they were moved from Ward 17 in Mt Pleasant Constituency in Harare and placed under Ward 20 in Mazowe South Constituency under Mashonaland Central Province.
The residents argued that the changes made in 2018 left them disfranchised because they were left without representation under the Harare City Council and under Mazowe Rural District Council.
Although Mt Pleasant Heights was placed under Mazowe Rural District Council, residents of the suburb were getting services from the City of Harare where they pay their rates while their voting rights were in Mazowe South.
The residents said their suburb should be placed under Harare and elect their representatives from where they are paying their rates and taxes.
The residents approached the electoral management body when it began the delimitations of wards and constituencies for this year’s harmonised presidential, parliamentary and council elections.
“In 2018 we were removed from Harare’s Mt Pleasant Constituency Ward 17 and placed in Mazowe South’s Ward 20.
“The effect of the transfer is that as the residents of Mt Pleasant Heights we have been disenfranchised by the simple fact that we were left without any representation in neither Harare City Council nor Mazowe Rural District Council on matters of service delivery.
“However, Harare City Council has been physically providing us service,” read the petition.
Mt Pleasant Heights residents said the councillor they voted for under Mazowe Rural District Council did not represent them in the local authority were they pay their rates.
“This has been so because while we pay our rates to City of Harare, we vote in a ward in Mazowe South. The councillor we vote for does not represent us in the local authority where we pay our rates.
“With the delimitation exercise currently going on this winter, we would like to appeal to ZEC to consider our plight as residents of Mt Pleasant Heights to be returned to Harare and elect our representative from where we pay our rates and taxes,” further reads the petition.
The residents argued that if ZEC did not address their plight they will remain disenfranchised until the next delimitation of constituencies in 2032.
Delimitation is now done after the population census, which is conducted every 10 years. The latest census was conducted last year.
“If this doesn’t happen, it means that until the next delimitation in 2032 residents of Mt Pleasant Heights shall again have no representation a situation that has hounded residents for the last five years,” read the residents’ petition.
A number of areas in Ward 17 in Mt Pleasant have been moved to Hatcliffe Constituency (which is currently called Harare North).
These include the area around Bond Shopping Centre, Pomona and Mt Pleasant Heights which together with Hatcliffe Extension now form Hatcliffe Constituency.
When delimiting the wards and constituencies, the ZEC took into consideration population density and distribution, physical features and means of communication, community of interest and existing electoral boundaries.
“As far as possible communities with the same interest were contained in the same ward in line with section 161(6)(d) of the Constitution,” ZEC says in the preliminary report.
However, the electoral body said in some cases it resorted to mixing communities with different interests to meet voter population thresholds.
“To ensure that the constitutional voter population thresholds were met there were instances where the Commission resorted to mixing land uses and communities with different interests.
“For instance, peri-urban, rural and urban communities were combined in a constituency to comply with set thresholds.
“During the delimitation of wards, it was observed that there were several areas whose land use had changed around most urban areas,” reads the report.
Mt Pleasant Heights was listed as one of the suburbs where land use had changed from commercial farming to peri-urban.
