Harare — Several groups of businesses are doing their best to upgrade Harare's city centre and restore it as the nation's premier shopping area, but the city council needs to be far more active in backing these efforts and in enforcing its legal rights.

Business groups along Kenneth Kaunda Avenue, around Africa Unity Square and along Jason Moyo Avenue have all started programmes to repair, upgrade and clean their areas and make them once again attractive to shoppers.

A large building-materials company is making a substantial gift of the necessary pavers, cement and bricks to repair a decade of neglect in First Street Mall, the heart of the central business district; the council says its workforce is fully engaged on repairs to pipes and drains, which is fair enough, but we hope that it will be able to switch at least one team to this other crucial repair job very soon.

City centres can die, and it costs a fortune to bring them back to life.

In many American cities, the thriving heart of the original town was allowed to decay and turn into a crime-ridden ghetto.

Only when the centre of the city was almost totally destroyed did city governments wake up and start taking action, at huge cost.

Large suburban shopping centres and office parks can take some of the load as cities grow, and they must be allowed to do so. But they can never provide the incredible concentration of business, and the width and depth that comes with that concentration, that a city centre should provide and which only a city centre can provide.

No matter what businesses do to upgrade their street or block, and keep it clean and fresh, these efforts will not be enough unless the council takes action as well.

Sure Harare City Council does something. Those teams of women street cleaners do a tremendous job, and a heartbreaking one considering the lack of rubbish bins throughout the city.

And the city has set in place a sensible parking policy, of quite cheap off-street parking for commuters and more expensive street parking for shoppers and visitors who only need a couple of hours. Some enforcement is done, but not nearly enough and most businesses are swamped by complaints from customers and prospective customers that they cannot find parking close to where they want to shop.

One very serious problem is the swamping of the eastern half of the city centre by touts, who seem to have taken over the streets, intimidate drivers to give them money to be allowed to park, and who enter corrupt deals to cheat the council of parking fees. Those touts cost the council and its commercial ratepayers vast sums every day.

It is beyond belief that a city council can surrender its streets to touts.

Removing these and enforcing the parking rules would be a good start, especially if backed up with cheaper off-street parking for commuters.

Implementing the decades-old plan to upgrade George Silundika Avenue to a pedestrian mall between the square and the post office needs to be accelerated, with adequate parking provided in the two parking garages for casual parkers.

The city centre is remarkably crime-free, except for the touts and their extortion and threats of violence over parking, but the city needs to keep it that way.

We are sure that closer ties between Harare Central police, the business community and the council are not only possible, but also desired by all.

Some suburban shopping centres have developed strong ties to their local police station, arranging for patrolling police to be able to take shelter and make a cup of tea while on duty and generally making life just a little bit easier for the patrols.

We should not forget that Harare is also the national capital; the government in a sense anchors the city and has a serious interest in ensuring that the city centre works.

The council needs to back the informal community groups of businesses that have been already set up and must encourage more to be formed.

One problem that has arisen is the odd business that declines to join in when all its neighbours are taking action. Perhaps some form of enforcement might be needed from the council.

Harare city centre can be saved, but it will not just happen automatically.

There are negative forces that make a visit downtown an absolute misery, and some of the decay is very offputting.

The business community, even in difficult times, is taking effective action.

The council has been running on automatic, when it needs to be more interventionist.

We believe that reinforcing what is already taking place, building ever-closer ties between council and business, the council by taking an active stance could swing the city centre back into the vibrant heart of a national capital.