THE Harare City Council has announced plans to acquire 200 buses, presented as a decisive intervention to restore order to the capital’s broken public transport system.
Mayor Jacob Mafume has framed the procurement as a step that will make Harare’s transport problems “a matter of the past”. But for residents navigating the capital's daily dysfunction, such optimism feels disconnected from lived reality.
Harare’s plate is already overflowing.
It cannot reliably provide running water to its residents. Burst pipes remain unattended for days, sometimes weeks. Raw sewage flows on the streets in some suburbs. Streetlights stopped working in many areas long ago, plunging communities into darkness. Illegal structures continue to mushroom with little meaningful enforcement. Vendors have taken over pavements in the absence of organised alternatives, while informal transport operators — mushikashika — continue to operate in a system widely accused of being compromised.
In this context, the question is not whether public transport needs reform. The question is whether 200 buses are the most urgent priority for a city struggling to perform its most basic functions.
What is particularly galling for ratepayers is that council leadership is prioritising a highly visible procurement exercise over the invisible but essential work of restoring a functioning city. Harare does not suffer primarily from a shortage of buses; it suffers from a collapse of urban management.
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Before expanding fleets, Town House should confront a more fundamental question: what has become of the systems it controls?
Roads are potholed and deteriorating. Running water has become a luxury for many ratepayers, while blocked storm drains cause flooding after light showers. Water infrastructure is failing. Traffic enforcement is weak and inconsistent. These are not isolated problems; they are symptoms of institutional decay.
Against this backdrop, the proposed bus acquisition risks becoming a costly distraction. Without fixing regulation, infrastructure and enforcement in the transport sector, adding council-owned buses simply inserts another layer into a fragmented system dominated by informal operators and chaotic routes.
There is also an uncomfortable governance question that cannot be ignored: does council have the capacity to manage such a fleet transparently, efficiently and without leakage? Procurement in many local authorities has repeatedly been associated with opacity and weak oversight. Large capital outlays, without strict safeguards, risk deepening public mistrust rather than restoring it.
What Harare needs is not symbolic expansion but disciplined restoration.
Fix the roads so that the transport system can function. Restore street lighting so that the city is safe and economically active after dark. Stabilise water supply so that public health is protected.
Only then does fleet expansion become meaningful — not as a political statement, but as part of a working urban system.
Harare City Council must focus on service delivery. Efforts to restore the city’s functionality are welcome in principle. However, procurement priorities must reflect urgency on the ground.
At present, buses cannot be a priority when raw sewage flows on the streets, when water is unreliable and when vendors have overwhelmed pavements to the detriment of formal economic activity. In such a context, service delivery must begin with basics — not buses.