Let’s remember- The third world is the third world because of third worlders! It isn’t the climate, or the soils, or the latitude and longitude. Its us it’s people with third world minds.
Even if we get diamond fields, good soils, young population, good climate, and so forth we remain third world because our minds from me to the top is just that, third world mind!
Even if we get US$2Trillion free money nothing will change us to first world unless we change our mindset.Nothing. We have poor corporate managers, city elders, politicians, cabinet, society leaders, civic society, councillors etc with lots of education but third world mindset.
Harare is what it is because we are 3rd worlders. This Harare is the city they deserve and must complain little.
The first major job is changing mindsets of residents. There is a lot we can achieve before city fathers take us to the next level like;
Throwing litter in bins,
repairing our broken windows,
manicure our lawns,
learn to point our urine into the urinal and our faecal matter into the shank,
refusing to build on wetlands,
not defecating in bushes,
building only on approved sites,
not buying stolen copper cables and transformer oil,
vend in right places,
follow traffic rules like giving way,
putting seats and windows in our combis,
paying water bills and rates,
not bribing police,
following queues in all places,
put our kids to schools near our residents,
follow urban zoning requirements,
use correct toilet paper,
stop stream bank cultivation,
not park and drive heavy vehicles in residents with 30t prohibition,
limit number of humans per property,
allow rural urban migration on a need basis,
put just a coat of paint in our commercial buildings,
support local businesses to lessen congestion in cbd & other surburbs,
attend to town Hall meetings,
select and vote for residents with competence and character,
buy from shops paying licenses and taxes,
follow city by laws on commercial and industrial buildings,
park our vehicles correctly,
decongest the cbd,
follow traffic rules,
inform and get neighbours approvals on parties,
pick litter in our streets and shop fronts,
buy bins for our retail and restaurants,
drink at pubs not bottle stores,
open bottle stores late afternoon,
wearing nice clothes to town,
follow designated routes and pick up points,
formalise all our businesses and pay licences and so forth.
When doing the whipping system for Mayor, Deputy Mayor and chairpersons of City Council qualifications are important but more important is to elect people who know how things work in a city.
Councillors should be those who saw cities like Harare / Salisbury working properly. Some don’t match the profile of living in a city and let alone run it.
As an alternative, persons who have lived in a world class city and seen how things work properly should lead councils.
Persons to be councillors should be those who have shown their mettle by how they maintain their own places of residence or offices…to show they appreciate beauty. The basic things like their own lawns, painting, driveways, cleaning cars and litter.
Often some of us who came to Harare to pursue education from Mandeya or such places the city standards were already very low for us to appreciate better. We become councillors in a city whose concept we don’t understand.
Running cities is a culture! That culture is devoid in residents and doubtful in council leadership.
Hagel opined that violence and force has to be used to make people law abiding until they are advanced enough to accept rationality of a life that has order.
That’s what’s required to force Harareans to have order because we are compliance brutes.
Having lived in Harare for 7 years, I agree with you. Harare people are generally not clean and don’t really care about the cleanliness of their environment, as compared to other cities I have lived in Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Gweru and Vic falls