Harare Mayor, Bernard Manyenyeni has mourned on the development of Zimbabwe’s capital, which has a 30 years deficit, during an Investment Forum today.
Manyenyeni was giving opening remarks in the presence of the Minister of State for Harare Province Mirriam Chikukwa; acting Town Clerk Hosiah Chisango and representatives of the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA).
“The last high rise building crane that worked out in this city worked out over 20 years ago when Joina City was built,” said Manyenyeni.
“I had the privilege of visiting 3 cities in the last 4 months on unofficial business; Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Kigali last week. In all of them cranes are everywhere. We have not had any new ones in 20 years and that emphasizes and demonstrates the backlog that we are chasing”
Manyenyeni also said that the deficit in infrastructure offers an investment opportunity in Harare, a city with skilled yet unemployed personnel.
“Am I asking for too much that we target a minimum of one big project per week? This can only be done on a completely new platform of doing things because our standards and traditional processes and procedures and local government bureaucracy will not deliver that particular pace,” Manyenyeni said.
“Our city is sitting on a planning and development deficit level of around 30 years so truly the only business in town is new business.”
The Mayor said that following Zimbabwe’s mantra “Zimbabwe is open for business” the capital city is running under the core “Harare is ready for business”.
A ZIA representative on the conference said that Zimbabwe has got rare minerals some of which are yet to be known, that attract global attention such as lithium.
“Some may say Zimbabwe is landlocked but we are saying we are directly linked other countries in the region,” a ZIA representative said.