One of the more impressive aspects of the new roadworks in northwestern Harare was the work done on the verges and centre islands of new dual carriageways, a trivial cost but one that provided a decent-looking approach to the New Parliament Building and which will, in time as trees and plants grow, provide a really spectacular entrance.
Some other work by the private sector and even the Harare City Council backed up the efforts of Government contractors fixing the roads and gave incredible value as Harare started to return to being the good-looking city it should be as the capital of a vibrant, growing and confident nation. But we need to keep and extend this work; it was not just for SADC but for the city and its future, starting right and now continuing.
Africa Unity Square looks presentable again, and as the repair work, scrubbing down of decayed fountains and gardening continues to produce results and should create at least, a good-looking green lung.
The new owners of Hyatt Regency Harare The Meikles took a lead here, but the city council did co-operate as the main borehole and its pumps were fixed, neat litter baskets were put in place and regularly emptied, the fountains and benches with their tatty and unnecessary advertising were repaired and repainted where necessary.
What is perhaps important is that the costs were again fairly trivial, a small fraction of what the hotel paid for its own renovations but giving guests looking out of their windows a decent-looking and safe public park rather than a dump.
There have been other businesses that have done their bit. Sections of Simon Muzenda Street have seen the centre island upgraded with some low maintenance and hard wearing gardening and we have those similar examples in other areas as the private sector does its bit. The small costs and part-time gardening give a major visual result.
The Mineral Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe in Msasa has landscaped its wide verge, and incidentally making the storm water drain a functional grassed basin, important at the building cuts across an old small streambed, and extending this work into the centre island of Mutare Road, where the council had planted trees some time ago, so this can also be done in industrial areas.
The upgrade of Nemakonde Road at the top end of Avondale West and Mabelreign saw the removal of the used car dealers on the verges of the road reserve, necessary perhaps to give space for dualisation but also producing a far better looking entrance into Harare.
Harare City Council a few years ago went all out in granting short-term leases of road reserve to car dealers, possibly to get a little extra money but at the social cost of ruining the appearance of the city, converting a potential first-world city into a third-world slum. Some roads, mainly those leading into the posher northeastern suburbs, missed this degradation of the environment, so those running the council kept the mess out of their own backyard.
We understand that the dealers need cheap land to store and display their wares, but the correct approach would have been to use a large slice of open land of little value not needed for immediate development and subdivide this into car lots. People do not buy cars on impulse and car buyers would get a better deal if they could go out and pace around a few dozen car lots next to each other. The dealers could combine their security as well, so lowering costs. Everyone would then win with a better looking city and more convenient car shopping.
The history of the city provides some guides for upgrade at very modest cost. Soon after the end of the Boer War early last century there was a serious depression in then Southern Rhodesia, made worse in Harare by a mining scam that saw almost all savings and even a lot of housekeeping money snatched by a con-artist who pegged a swathe of worthless land, at least for gold, around where Banket now is, drove up the share prices and then cashed in and vanished with everyone else's money.
A new city council run by prudent businessmen had taken over from a scandalous mayor, who had overdrawn the overdraft with his grandiose schemes, and had restored financial viability with prudent reform. But it was stuck with the mess of large numbers of unemployed and wanted to be careful over money.
The fanatical municipal parks superintendent, a low grade council officer, came up with a cheap solution. He had a lot of tree seedlings, and with the capital cost of some cheap spades, suggested planting a lot of saplings along the verges of what is now called the Avenues, a sort of food-for-work scheme. The result is still there, although some trees need replacing, and future councils did partly extend this into the new suburbs. Just imagine old Harare without its trees. The more depressed areas of the city centre give an idea of how horrendous it would look.
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There were attempts in the 1990s to extend this along some major highways, but the result has been patchy, working well when householders and businesses were prepared to go out every now and again and throw the odd bucket of water at a sapling outside their premises and do the routine trimming of lower branches and grass cutting as the trees grew, but with gaps when no one cared, or just stunted bushy shrubs.
Trees are cheap, planting trees needs little labour, and a lot of maintenance could be done by house-proud residents and businesses. Then keeping verges trimmed, and grass cutting is again a low cost programme, and kerbing does not cost much to install and maintain. A modest municipal parks team could go round and, with backing from those who front onto the roads, create and maintain at low cost something that looked rather good and a million times better than long strings of used-car lots or overgrown and litter-ridden verges.
