Harare City Council and Chitungwiza Municipality have finally submitted their masterplan proposals after failing to meet the initial deadline set for the end of June, the Government confirmed yesterday.
Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe confirmed the development on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe 2024 SADC Protocol @ Work Summit and Awards held in Harare yesterday.
“All our 92 local authorities have now submitted the master plans. Harare City Council and Chitungwiza Municipality have now submitted, meaning all the master plan proposals are now in the hands of the Local Government and Public Works Ministry,” said Minister Garwe.
“Furthermore, local authorities have all submitted their valuation rolls and enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs), a software they use to manage their finances.”
“All the masterplans are now out there for public scrutiny,” he said.
The confirmation by Minister Garwe comes after Harare City Council was last week given an ultimatum by the Government to submit its comprehensive draft masterplan by November 20.
“It has come to my attention that the City of Harare submitted a place-holder masterplan document that did not quite meet the standard as per the dictates of the Regional Town and Country Planning Act,” Minister Garwe said.
“In light of the foregoing, I now direct your council to expedite all outstanding plan preparation processes and to submit the council’s comprehensive draft masterplan on or before November 20 2024 without fail.
“If the Harare masterplan will not be completed and placed on public display by November 20 2024, I shall regard that as a gross miscarriage of a critical statutory obligation by the city council, which is untenable and overly unacceptable.”
In November 2023, President Mnangagwa directed all the country’s 92 councils to develop masterplans by June 30 this year to curb the growth of haphazard settlements and ensure orderly and rapid growth.
Source: Herald