Harare Mayor to deliver second state of city address

zwnews.com Reporter- Lovemore Lubinda

The Mayor of Harare, Bernard Manyenyeni, is going to deliver his second state of the city address amid chaos in service delivery at the local authority.

His address on 13 of April is expected to touch on virtually all aspects of the city, will be gauging the council’s resolve to take on the challenges besieging the capital city.

Manyenyeni, who survived an ouster bid by the Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere in 2016, made history by becoming the first Mayor in the Independent Zimbabwe to make a State Of City Address. Home to over 50 percent of the country’s urban population, the city is moving towards attaining a World Class City status by 2025.

Residents await to hear whether council has delivered on the promises the mayor alluded to in his initial address in 2016.

Critical will be how far Harare City Council has gone on the rehabilitation of water and sanitation infrastructure. Residents still face challenges to access tapped water despite the refurbishment of the Morton Jaffray Water treatment which was expected to be completed by December 2016. Routine collection of garbage was placed on the 2016 agenda with proposal to purchase 10 refuse compactors yearly over the next four years.

Other projects and services the council that were expected to kick off in 2016 included the repairing roads which are in a bad state, provision of residential stands and houses stopping the outbreak of water borne epidemic diseases like cholera and typhoid.