Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda will tomorrow host a man who held a lone demonstration against open trenches that litter the city’s roads.
McNorman Chitongo was invited by the mayor for a cup of tea after he spent the day “fishing” in a trench left unattended for a year after his car fell into it and was badly damaged.
While his protest action threw the spotlight on the terrible state of Harare’s neglected roads that are riddled with potholes and open trenches, there is reason to suspect the mayor wishes to portray himself as a responsive leader when the opposite is true, as demonstrated by the Chitongo incident.
We hope after the tea party, Masunda would take time to visit Matapi flats in Mbare or any other high-density suburb to see how people are suffering from water-borne diseases because water supply has been at best erratic, and at worst non-existent.
Masunda obviously has as his defence the neglect the city experienced under previous regimes and the lack of financial resources to repair the damage. He will point to the efforts he has put into restoring the city to its sunshine status but he should realise that as mayor of the country’s capital city, the buck must stop with him.
Residents of Harare have been patient enough with the mediocrity on display at Town House. When people drive through potholed roads and dysfunctional traffic lights and walk into their offices in the morning to find their toilets with no running water, enough must be said to be enough.
Few residents are still convinced Masunda is capable of solving Harare’s service delivery problems. They are beginning to sympathise with his detractors who allege arrogance as the core of his leadership style.
Masunda has also not shown any willingness to engage with residents suffering under the yoke of his administration’s mediocrity, rendering his tenure about the worst ever.
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The list of Harare’s problems is long and one can only wonder for how much longer residents can cope with this lack of quality leadership at Town House. has the time come for him to throw in the towel?
